At the beginning of the pandemic, the design community used digital fabrication laboratories to 3D-print face shields for emergency health workers. “The urgency to providing solutions created this kind of a design sprint to create new systems of logistics as well as new products that were not being done before,” said Maria Rita “Rhea” O. Matute, executive director of the Design Center of the Philippines (DCP).
Designers are now thinking about big problems like climate change and plastic pollution. “What we wanted them [designers] to really take into account is, our future is made by the actions that are done today,” she said.
In this B-Side episode, Ms. Matute talks to BusinessWorld reporter Brontë H. Lacsamana about design thinking and innovation during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis and how, in the long run, design can help small businesses contribute even more to the Philippine development agenda. “The health emergency has made people bolder,” she said.
Recorded remotely September 2021. Produced by Brontë H. Lacsamana, Paolo L. Lopez, and Sam L. Marcelo.
