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Two Projects Make FastCo’s World-Changers List

Fast Company selected two Sasaki projects, Las Salinas and Understanding Homelessness, as finalists in the 2018 World Changing Idea Awards.

Las Salinas, a transformative waterfront redevelopment plan in Chile, placed in the Urban Development category. Understanding Homelessness, a compelling and educative tool that uses data visualization to explore homeless populations, was recognized in the Photography And Visualization category.

“We are working closely with our remarkable client in the collective ambition to push beyond planning and really work with the communities to develop a forward-looking new district that is an inspiring evolution of the city,” says Dennis Pieprz, Hon. ASLA, principal-in-charge on the project.

“This project was exciting not only because it brought visual clarity to the pressing issue of homelessness,” says Gretchen Keillor, UX/UI designer, urban planner, and project lead for Understand Homelessness [pictured below], “but also because it sets a powerful model for how other social challenges could be tackled by better coordinating centralized data sets. It’s an honor for our team to be recognized alongside so many other fantastic world-changing ideas!”

Congratulations to the project teams! Read on for the full press release from FastCo:

FAST COMPANY ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2018 WORLD CHANGING IDEAS AWARDS

HONOREES OF AWARD INCLUDE ALPHABET, DELTA AIRLINES, FACEBOOK, AND SEVENTH GENERATION

FINALISTS AND WINNERS TO BE HIGHLIGHTED IN FAST COMPANY’S MAY ISSUE

New York, April 9, 2018 Fast Company is today announcing the winners of its World Changing Ideas Awards, which honor businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that offer innovative solutions to the issues facing humanity. All of the finalists are highlighted in the May issue of the print magazine, which hits newsstands on April 9.

Now in its second year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcases 12 winners and more than 200 finalists. A panel of eminent judges selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 1,300 entries in 12 categories, from Food to Energy to Developing World Technology. Honorees include big-name brands like Microsoft and Walmart, nonprofits like the Anti-Defamation League and Unicef, government programs from Los Angeles and Ontario, and innovative startups like Aerofarms, Aspiration, and Matternet. The 2018 awards featured entries from across the globe, from India to Brazil to Rwanda.

Fast Company’s May issue celebrates these world changing ideas, highlighting how Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has spearheaded a solution to the city’s housing crisis by using backyards as a building place for tiny houses; Facebook, whose Disaster Maps feature helps rescuers allocate resources after disasters; L’Oreal, which has designed a tool to make sure its products are as sustainable as possible; and The North Face, which has designed a new wool beanie that is sourced from sheep farms that use agricultural practices that emit less carbon than they produce.

About the World Changing Ideas Awards: World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners and finalists based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With a goal of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start work on solving the problems that affect us all.

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