Our Services

ASK creates a venue to more effectively address current social, environmental, and equity issues by: 

1. Working directly with communities throughout the process to frame a design question in context, embed value and ownership in local community spaces, and to evaluate the effect of any design decision. 

2. Prompting design solutions through applied research in various fields of study and encouraging an open design process that blurs disciplinary boundaries and values a wide aperture of influence.

3. Developing written, graphic, and physical design products as part of the design process that raise awareness around critical issues that escape the traditional design process and have lasting positive impact on the human experience and the natural environment. 

Social Impact Areas

In order to address issues in communities immediately surrounding the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN area, as well as those half way across the world, we assemble teams, design workflows, and foster questions from a range of communities that address topics rooted in the way our environment shapes life. In this sense, the overarching goal of the work, whether domestic or abroad, utilizes design thinking to reimagine the built and unbuilt. The work is for communities, but more importantly, is designed with communities.

Research Focus Areas

Because ASK is not a single entity but rather a network of professionals working in a variety of fields, the scope, typology, and team structure of any particular project can be reorganized and optimized to suit the demands of the design question. In this sense, ASK is a flexible group of concerned professionals who have a vested interest in working together to improve the quality of the built and unbuilt environment. With such a diverse group of participants in the design process, we can effectively address shared interests and goals through creative problem solving at many different scales and typologies.

Our Process