Malika Leiper and Stephen Burks, partners of the acclaimed design studio Stephen Burks Man Made, have forged a unique path by advocating for hand production as a strategy for innovation. Their holistic approach transcends the singular definitions of art, architecture and design in favour of a hybrid synthesis of craft, community and industry. With solo exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Stephen Burks Man Made has distinguished itself through socially engaged partnerships that contribute to a more inclusive and pluralistic vision of design. Since 2024, their creative practice has taken them around the world as artists-in-residence: Senegal with the Albers Foundation, Montana with the Archie Bray Foundation, and Tokyo with Space Un gallery, where they inaugurated the transcultural exhibition "Kuba Sugi". Most recently, as a co-curator of the American pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, Stephen Burks Man Made presented a groundbreaking contribution titled Objects of Belonging.