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Join Mithun’s Alex Ayala and Monserratt Cortés Macías for “Social Change Through Architecture and Art,” a panel presentation that will offer practical roadmaps for leveraging multi-stakeholder partnerships to create design-focused events that engage, delight, illuminate and inspire. Panelists will share their experiences with creating public events and displays that present design and architecture as platforms for raising awareness of critical issues to make real impact within their com-munities. Attendees will acquire tools and methods for forming partnerships, developing budgets and schedules, integrating social media strategy, and raising funds to benefit social causes and nonprofit partners, which they can bring back to their own communities to create new and innovative events and exhibitions that leverage design in the public sphere to spur conversation and make direct in support of social goals.

Mithun’s Seattle Design Festival 2025 installation soundw(e)ave will be a featured case study. A collaboration by Mithun, Lease Crutcher Lewis (build partner) and Arup (sound, lighting, and structural engineering), this immersive installation invited the public to interact with and blend the many voices of our community. The structure’s walls, crafted from interwoven straw wattles, reflected the layered, reciprocal nature of feedback: alive, responsive and rooted in relationships. Now, after the festival, the collective musical composition is being made available for listening, while the installation materials are repurposed for new uses, allowing both the physical elements and digital recordings of the project to extend beyond the festival.

Alex’s co-panelists include Joshua Zinder Architecture + Design managing partner Joshua Zinder, Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects associate Jessica Chang and EL Studio principal Mark Lawrence. Monserratt will join the Q&A discussion.

Date Posted: 09.10.2025