We create built environment
innovations for the benefit of society.
The easy version
The real version
I still don’t get it
We understand. Go check out our project examples on the homepage.
I did that…
still don’t get it
Text 847-873-7323.
We will buy you a coffee and have a really interesting conversation.
Approach
We see the built environment as a system that creates opportunities across a variety of scales and contexts. As such, we don’t only design the buildings, spaces, objects, or platforms themselves, but also the systems that support the complexity of human life (services and product delivery, business models, ownership models, power structures, experience, etc).
Our projects investigate, and activate knowledge, wisdom, and beauty across a generative and evaluative process that explores Norm/Form-making simultaneously. We apply the lenses of Economics, Ecology, Technology, Culture, and Ethics, to enrich our practice and ensure our innovations provide a societal benefit.
The ideas behind Multicontextual Design often require new forms of making and unlock previously unknown and unknowable opportunities. Our projects extend beyond (and across) material, fields, mediums, and scale in order to articulate solutions that support novel approaches to enrich life and explore new forms of being.
We believe in shared creativity and expression and therefore create opportunities for participatory processes, collaborations, and commissions to successfully bring new ideas to life in each project.
Example
Imagine being able to rethink the functions and the structures that make up our society, and re-create them in ways that promote equity, distributed power, and connect us to nature. These are some of the ambitions of Multicontextual Design.
Consider the design of a café…
What comes to mind? Probably a front of house, back of house, a counter with snacks at the front, and tables to sit, work, and maybe socialize, right? This mental model is an example of a norm that comes to life over and over again.
Traditionally, the design of a new café would arrange its typical components in different ways, but never question what the café is—its norms, opportunities, and what form that may take.
Instead, through Multicontextual Design, we would see the design of a “café” as an opportunity to create a holistic intervention, and expand the definition of what kind of human and natural interactions can take place through it. We would apply the lenses of economics, ecology, technology, culture, and ethics to investigate (knowledge) the contexts related to the café to design and bring to action (wisdom) new norms and forms of being that help individuals connect to one another and nature more deeply (beauty).
In this example, the result may be instead a space for liberation, where residents surfaced the need to have access to a single space to gather, learn, replenish, and create. This type of space has no direct precedent, so its new service and product delivery models are designed from scratch to support the space in a way that enables individuals to define and find their own liberation.
The space not only addresses the needs of individuals inhabiting the space, but it also unlocks new opportunities for the organization. From the ownership structure, to food sourcing, to the guest experience. A space for liberation would look different from a café because it is different, as it accounts for the various contexts of the project and creates a novel approach for residents to interact in this new kind of space.
Team
Studio
What is Duo/.?
Multicontextualism is a design philosophy and creative approach for collective and self expression. It relies on recognizing the varied nested and interacting settings or venues (contexts) in which subjects, objects, environments, and influencing factors operate, and intentionally draws upon them to challenge preconceived norms and ideals to (re)create novel approaches to human life and explore new forms of being.
Rooted at the intersection of Norm-making (strategy/policy), and Form-making (design/art), Multicontextual Design calls for a fundamental shift in the ways interventions are designed and developed. It relies on defining and understanding boundary conditions (human, environmental, social, metaphysical, etc.), to then conceptualize and materialize new ideas into reality.
Multicontextualism promotes Norm / Form-making which enables us to (re)shape dominant norms and set new precedents through our work.
Duo is a new type of creative practice. We are an innovation studio/lab that creates buildings, spaces, experiences, services, businesses, and artworks to improve our collective quality of life, and rethink how organizations (and society) use their built assets.
We operate like an art studio and an innovation lab, and basically do two things (although outlining it like this makes it feel very reductive):
Independently launch ventures that can radically improve our collective wellbeing and openly share the innovations behind them.
Partner with forward-thinking organizations to create new, cool, and ethical buildings, services, businesses, and experiences in physical space.
Founded in 2019 by brothers, Carlos Robles-Shanahan and Rafael Robles, Duo is an innovation studio/lab that pioneered Multicontextual Design to promote new possibilities for creative practice, craft interventions that improve our collective quality of life, and explore new forms of being.
Multicontextual Design (Multicontextualism)
How we work
How we do things is what makes us special. We created this new cool way (multicontextual design) to be more effective, innovative, and inclusive when designing new things.
Our work is extremely diverse, in part because we don’t believe there is one “lane” that can bring about interesting innovations to the world, and in part because our team has a really diverse set of skills.
So how do we choose work?
Like our clever tagline says:
We create…: We see “creating” as intentionally developing innovations of value(in a broad sense). Creating is an act of creativity. We’re good at designing and building things.
…Built Environment innovations…: It has to be broadly related to the built environment, but it can be tangible (like a building) or intangible (like a policy inside of a building or ownership structure).
…for the benefit of society: Our projects all MUST have a net positive societal benefit. We are not into half-baked notions of “social impact.”
We work really hard to bring new knowledge to the world, wisdom through active participation, and beauty to help individuals connect to themselves, each other, and the natural environment.