Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics

This exhibition, curated by MASS Design Group and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, was organized during the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic revealed what some have known for a long time: breathing is spatial. This fact has implications at the scale of the body, building, city, and planet. Everyone on Earth has been affected by the pandemic. Unequal access to housing, jobs, and health care ensured that COVID-19 hit marginalized communities harder than others.

This exhibition presents architectural case studies and historical narratives alongside creative design responses to COVID-19. Every designer, artist, doctor, engineer, or neighbor featured in the exhibition asked, “How can I help?” They used open-source collaboration, rapid-response prototyping, product hacking, and social activism to create medical devices, protective gear, infographics, political posters, architecture, and community services—all with the shared aspiration to reduce structural barriers that keep us from accessing the care we all deserve.

Highlights

A selection of objects featured in the exhibition.

Photograph of a man sitting while wearing a mosquito net veil with a smoking pipe in his mouth — Mosquito Net Veil, photograph: Wellcome Collection

A man wearing a surgical mask and a silicone brace layered over it. — Essential Mask Brace, 2020, Sabrina Paseman, Katherine Paseman, and William Paseman, Fix the Mask

Interior courtyard of GHESKIO hospital, a two-story, angular white building with a luminescent green sloping roof that has large rectangular windows and a wrap-around balcony. The cobbled courtyard has climbing green foliage in triangular stone planters. — GHESKIO Tuberculosis Hospital, Port-au-Prince, Ouest Department, Haiti, 2015, MASS Design Group. Photo: © Iwan Baan

GHESKIO Cholera Treatment Center, 2015, MASS Design Group. Photo: © Iwan Baan

Photograph of a light-skinned individual dressed in bright colors adjusting a pink and purple face mask with a clear mouth panel, standing against a sun-dappled leafy green backdrop. — Rebirth Garments Mask, 2021, Sky Cubacub, Rebirth Garments

Photo of a light-skinned woman wearing a blue and white scrub set and white sneakers. — Zero-waste Scrub Set, 2020, Danielle Elsener

To keep out mosquitos, Dr. Albert Freeman Africanus King (American, 18411915) proposed erecting a screen over Washington, D.C. Photomontage: Jeffrey Mansfield, MASS Design Group

An eye-catching poster of a cartoon-like worker holding a bin of tomatoes and the words [WORKERS FIRST] printed in bubble font repeating vertically in wavy lines filling the background. — Workers First Poster, 2020, Brian Herrera

A light-skinned left hand holds a curved lozenge-shaped green-blue plastic device containing naloxone in a loose grip. The device is about the size of their palm and has text on the surface — Ventizolve Naloxone Kit, 2020, ANTI (A New Type of Interface)

Side-view of an urban outdoor dining structure with several people dining behind plexiglass; it has black planters with green shrubs, wooden benches and a rust-colored awning overgrown with green ivy — New York City Streatery, photograph: Jennifer Tobias

Poster divided into two sections showing two pairs of eyes with text at the bottom of each section. — Don’t Let Racism Go Viral Poster, 2020, Kayan Cheung-Miaw

A plaza with numerous white squares painted on the ground one-point-eight meters apart in a lattice design for social distancing. The square is surrounded by buildings and has a statue in the center — Social Distance Graphics, Vicchio, Italy, 2020, Caret Studio

A light-skinned man carries a transparent snorkel mask with a pink interior, white frame and two yellow valves on top, each attached to long ribbed tubes, a turquoise air bag connects to one valve. — Charlotte Valve and Mask, 2020, Cristian Fracassi and Alessandro Romaioli, Isinnova

A medium-skinned figure lies with eyes closed on a hospital bed underneath a box-shaped negative pressure air ventilator which is opaque with rectangular transparent planes revealing the chest and side — Shaash Negative-Pressure Ventilator, 2021, Karnaphuli Industries Limited

Photo of a woman's translucent form sitting in a curved plywood chair looking toward the wall. — Paimio Chair and Aino Aalto, ca. 1932; chair: Alvar Aalto; photograph: Alvar Aalto Foundation

Installation

Exhibition space with grey standing mannequin on a plinth in center-left with figural projection on a transparent screen behind, a curved green screen in the foreground and a panel of explanatory text on the white back wall — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Oak-wood-paneled entryway into an exhibit space centered in frame, a honey-colored armchair with a ribbon-like seat stands side-on on a plinth. Two orb-like yellow and blue lights hang above it, behind is a mannequin wearing blue and white scrubs. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

A red-brown armchair with a ribbon-like seat stands side-on on a plinth whose surface is white and filled with photographs and explanatory text. Two orb-like yellow and blue lights hang above, behind are two photographs on either side of a wood-paneled doorway — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Wood-paneled, interior exhibition space with multiple examples of personal, protective equipment, including face masks, face-shields and hospital scrubs, displayed on grey standing mannequins, grey mannequin heads and in colorful posters and blown-up photographs. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Wood-paneled, interior exhibition space displaying examples of personal, protective equipment, including multi-colored face masks, transparent face-shields, and blue and white hospital scrubs, displayed on grey standing mannequins, grey mannequin heads and in colorful posters and blown-up photographs. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Exhibition space with a large white central pedestal displaying a reclined teal blue cot and a small white and blue building model. In the left background are two mannequins, one wearing a black hood and the other a clear plastic bubble helmet. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Wood-paneled interior exhibition space with posters, photographs, objects, and panels displayed; most prominent is a blue, reclining chair that stands on a plinth, and a photograph showing the exterior of a cholera treatment center. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Wood-paneled exhibition space with a long white pedestal along the right wall, displaying a blue full-face mask, a white box-like enclosure for a patient's torso, and a silver and yellow rectangular ventilation device. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Exhibition space with a white angle-fronted pedestal along the left wall, printed with colorful graphics and text, displaying ventilation devices. A large doorway on the back wall opens into another gallery. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Wood-paneled exhibition space with two display platforms split by a fireplace, on the left is a geometric model of a hospital encased in plexiglass, on the right is a clear plastic hood with draping sheeting on the back. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

A white pitch-roofed tent installed in the entrance to a windowed conservatory, flanked by hanging white graphic signs and window seats upholstered with shaggy green and multicolor yarn. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

A pale green conservatory space with long bench seating lining its windowed walls, the bench is covered with multi-colored, squiggly strips of recycled fabric in a thick shaggy covering and dotted with grey pebble-like cushions. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Coolly-lit, green-tiled conservatory, lined with window seats upholstered in shaggy green, yellow, pink, and teal yarns, and scattered with grey pebble-like pillows. Beneath a tall archway at center left, a doorway leads to a warmly-lit shop space. — Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Publications

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Curatorial team: MASS Design Group (Regina Chen, Jeffrey Mansfield, Michael Murphy, Morgan O’Hara and Maggie Stern). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (Ellen Lupton, senior curator of contemporary design, and Julie Pastor, curatorial assistant)
Exhibition designer: MASS Design Group (Annie Wang)
Graphic designers: Span (Alyssa Arnesen and Bud Rodecker) and Rick Valicenti

Support

Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics is made possible with major support from Crystal and Chris Sacca.

Generous support is also provided by Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Cooper Hewitt Master’s Program Fund.

Highlights

Installation

Publications

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Support

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