Instilling a Sense of Infinite Curiosity – Fraîche Design Thinking

Instilling a Sense of Infinite Curiosity

Sector

Social creativity

Offer

Product innovation

Client

Eames Institute x SOSHL Studio

The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity is a public charity that brings the lessons of Ray and Charles Eames to life. Though composed of several sites around the San Francisco Bay, it is the Eames Ranch in Petaluma, California, that electrifies the imagination. The ranch functions as a living laboratory where nonprofits, conservationists, educators, and other social creatives can test and refine ideas rooted in the Eames holistic ethos that nature is the ultimate designer.

Our approach

Design question

Ray and Charles continually drew inspiration from the natural world and believed that 'eventually everything connects'—salient amid the unfolding climate crisis. But the Eameses were nothing if not problem-solvers. How might the Eames Ranch offer a service experience that invites likeminded social creatives to manifest their visions for change?

Design response

The Eames Ranch is a landscape for cultivating curiosity—a working farm where the practices of design and regenerative agriculture are integrated to build a better world for tomorrow. The team partnered up with Eames Institute staff—an extraordinary group of talented architects, planners, experience designers, visual artists, archivists, and curators—to think deeply about the uses of land and space for learning, exploring, and embodying the lessons of Ray and Charles. If agriculture is indeed an act of design, then the Eames Ranch is an act of love—a gesture toward those individuals and communities who cross its threshold with hopes for a thriving world.

Testimonial

“How do you design an experience that communicates not just an aesthetic but a particular point-of-view? I think a lot of consultants would sort of buckle under the pressure, but Lisa and Marika came in with the right approach. They talk to people. They find out what people think, what people need. They listen. They brought in so much human-centeredness that it helped us see what was worth doing and what wasn't. All of this made the project output so relevant.”

Lauren Smith

Chief Experience Officer, Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity