2 feb 2013

Humanitarian Design: Catapult Design, a non-profit firm


Catapult Design is an interdisciplinary design practice that brings engineering, technology, and products to resource-limited settings.
They are engineers, designers, implementers, and educators. They design products, introduce technologies, and foster trends that are appropriate, self-sustaining, socially responsible and culturally sensitive.

"The majority of our world’s population lacks access to life’s basic needs. We develop and implement human-centered products to help them thrive".
Catapult Design focuses on delivering culturally sensitive, environmentally friendly, location-appropriate solutions for communities in need. Technology can empower and liberate. A single, effective product has more potential for worldwide impact – by providing clean water, food, shelter, or income – than any other existing development approach. Through the introduction of inexpensive and simple yet life-altering products the lives of more than 2 billion poverty-stricken people around the globe can be dramatically improved.
With the philosophy that successful products require local knowledge, Catapult Design ensures that these products are accessible, meaningful to local individuals and culturally sensitive to the end-users.



Founded in 2009 in San Francisco, in a few years their list of accomplishments is impressive from harnessing wind power in rural Central America to dealing with water scarcity in arid regions of Africa.
All of its work is undertaken on a fee-for-service basis, providing engineering and implementation support to nonprofits as well as governments, social ventures, and even 500 companies.

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