SINGAPORE ( CNN ) -- Co-founder and executive director of Architecture for Humanity , Cameron Sinclair opened the second Principal Voices debate on Design for Good by outlining just what the term means to him , but also what it means to the communities his design solutions are aimed at . 'When your focus is social change ... why would n't you want to share that openly ? ' Taking the ego out of architecture , Sinclair sees the sharing of transformative design ideas as being a moral responsibility of today 's designers and architects . `` When your focus is social change and not financial change why would n't you want to share that openly ? '' Below are some of Sinclair 's thoughts on a number of topics that were discussed at the debate . On shared design . `` I always think of the design world like the medical world ; we have people who are plastic surgeons , but we have a lot of people who are in the emergency room and a lot of our designers are in the emergency room dealing with the critical issues like post-disaster issues or systemic issues or poverty . When I was in college the idea of being a socially responsible architect was unheard of , it was almost taboo : 'We 're trying to make jewels in the city ' , whereas a lot of us wanted to create cities that were jewels . '' `` When your focus is social change and not financial change why would n't you want to share that openly ? Innovation only succeeds when it 's shared . If you 're a pioneer and you come up with something that can change the world and you turn round and say ' I 'm not going to share this idea with anyone ' then you only impact the few and not the many . '' `` But we 're in a situation right now where we have to deal with a huge variety of issues . If you have a design idea that can improve the lives of a million people it 's almost ethically irresponsible to keep to it yourself . '' On sustainability . `` It angers me when sustainability gets used as a buzz word . For 90 percent of the world , sustainability is a matter of survival . When you as a designer design something that burdens a community with maintenance and old world technology , basically failed developed world technology then you will crush that community way beyond bad design ; you 'll destroy the economics of that community and often the community socially is broken . '' `` You have to do this marriage between what is appropriate , learning from the local nature , but also can we leapfrog technologies , so we 're not burdening people with outdated technologies . If we can come up with that , then it truly is sustainable . '' On community involvement in design . `` The community is not your client but your partner . You do n't just put up some nice big rendering and tell them this is what you might have and do a Q & A . Doing workshops within the community and having them design these quiet moments of innovation within the larger developments , not only allows an empowerment of that community , but also ownership . '' `` Just because you put their name on the building does n't mean they feel like they own it ; but empower them in the process not only does it quicken the process , but you find you have the political will you can put through things you never even imagined . '' `` When you have strong common will , then projects go forward . There 's nothing worse than selling or convincing , but if you 're inspiring and including then it 's a beautiful thing , and at the end of it you 're part of the community . ''
Second Principal Voices debate took place in Singapore on July 9 . David Sinclair lead calls to take ego out of design . and that designers have moral responsibility to share good design .