Our Mission

ASK reimagines social, technical, and environmental issues through the act of questioning. We use design-thinking and applied research to engage, listen, and respond to the needs of regional and global communities.

Combining digital and analog tools, ASK creates a venue to more effectively address complex socio-environmental issues by:

• Engaging directly with communities who are not traditionally part of the design process with open questions,

• Responding to these questions with a flexible, interdisciplinary group of professionals, and by

• Generating research and documentation of the process.

We deal with projects and design issues that often escape the traditional model and scope of a single discipline’s practice. Therefore, ASK is made up of architects, engineers, scientists, designers, community activists, mothers, and children, among others. The scope, typology, and structure of any project team can be reorganized and optimized to work at various scales and typologies. We assemble diverse teams based on the specific needs of a project, not a one size fits all approach.

In order to serve people and the environment in the Twin Cities, as well as those half way across the world, we assemble teams, design workflows, and ask questions of a wide range of stakeholders. Stakeholders that are not usually at the table. Questions challenge topics rooted in how the environment shapes and influences the human experience.

The overarching goal, whether domestic or abroad, is to utilize design thinking to reimagine the built and unbuilt. We ask, we listen, and we creatively respond to complex questions.