Baohouse (pronounced Bauhaus) is a virtual design studio for research on cross-cultural and culture-specific communication with images between laypeople and experts. Bao is a game played in Africa. Here we use it as a metaphor to describe a virtual space that supports collaborative designing between grassroots participants and professionals. Many researchers use the “virtual design studio” concept for computer supported cooperative work. But these are typically for professional projects (e.g. architects talking to architects). Through the Baohouse we seek to create a virtual design studio focused on participatory development with lay communities on topics related to social change through effective communication like HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, sustainability, and global citizenship.