Friday night in Brooklyn, you can party and give a damn all at once.

DUMBO bookstore powerHouse Arena is having a launch party for a new book, Design Like You Give a Damn [2]: Building Change from the Ground Up, about using design to create a more sustainable future. Author Cameron Sinclair and Paul D. Miller (also known as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid) take the lead for this celebration. 

Like Us on Facebook

The second of a two part series, the book is an overview of how innovative design solutions have led to creating positive change worldwide.

Sinclair is the co-founder and "Chief Eternal Optimist" (CEO) of Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit design services firm that edited his book. Since starting in 1999, the company has enlisted more than 50,000 professionals to bring design, construction and development services to those in need. In 12 years, their efforts have resulted in more than 2 million people utilizing 2,250 buildings that include homes, schools, medical facilities and workplaces.

The book chronicles more than 100 projects, featuring interviews and case studies along the way that show how design changes both communities and people for the better. Design solutions that are simultaneously practical and original are implemented, addressing the need for "disaster reconstruction, basic shelter, education, access to food, health care, clean water, renewable energy, and cultural gathering spaces." 

Though the book is especially helpful for designers, architects, planners, local policy makers and educators, it appeals to anyone who wants to be inspired to create change.

powerHouse Arena describes some of the amazing projects included:

From swing sets in refugee shelters to a coed skate park in war-torn Afghanistan; an elevated railway transformed into a New York City public park to environmentally friendly baskets of household items for Hurricane Katrina survivors; building material innovations such as smog-eating concrete to innovative public policy that is repainting Brazil's urban slums, Design Like You Give a Damn [2] proves that design is the ultimate renewable resource.