Featuring 25 site-specific, newly commissioned installations, Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial explores design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional realities of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. The exhibition is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established in 2000 to address the most urgent topics of the time through the lens of design.

Installed throughout the Andrew and Louise Carnegie Mansion, each floor of the exhibition is organized by themes that evoke experiences of home:

“Going Home” (ground and first floor) considers how people shape and are shaped by domestic spaces. Through reinterpretations of diverse home environments that traverse interior and exterior spaces, this section explores the historical and personal factors that influence home design and its profound impact on people’s experiences, behaviors, and values.

“Seeking Home” (second floor) addresses a range of institutional, experimental, and utopian contexts that challenge conventional definitions of home. Installations examine the idea of home through the lenses of cultural heritage, the human body, imagined landscapes, and refuge.

“Building Home” (third floor) presents alternatives to single-family construction models, expanding and redefining home to embrace community space, cooperative living, land stewardship, decolonial practices, and historic preservation. Large-scale installations explore building typologies grounded in regional histories and cultural specificity, and address contemporary issues such as housing precarity, environmental advocacy, memory, and aging.

PARTICIPANTS

  • After Oceanic Built Environments Lab, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Leong Leong Architecture, New York City
  • Artists in Residence in Everglades (AIRIE), Miami, Florida
  • La Vaughn Belle, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands 
  • Black Artists + Designers Guild, Brooklyn, New York
  • Lori A. Brown, Syracuse, New York; Trish Cafferky, Boston, Massachusetts; and Dr. Yashica Robinson, Huntsville, Alabama 
  • CFGNY, New York, New York
  • Mona Chalabi and SITU Research, Brooklyn, New York
  • Nicole Crowder, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Hadiya Williams, Washington, DC
  • Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, Oakland, California 
  • Heather Dewey-Hagborg, New York, New York
  • East Jordan Middle/High School, East Jordan, Michigan 
  • Curry J. Hackett, Wayside Studio, Washington, DC, and New York, New York
  • Hugh Hayden, Brooklyn, New York; Davóne Tines, New York, New York; and Zack Winokur, New York, New York
  • Hord Coplan Macht, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Terrol Dew Johnson, Tohono O’odham Nation, Sells, Arizona, and Aranda\Lasch, Tucson, Arizona, and Brooklyn, New York
  • Liam Lee, Brooklyn, New York, and Tommy Mishima, Bronx, New York
  • Lenape Center with Joe Baker, Delaware Tribe of Indians, New York, New York, and Oklahoma 
  • Joiri Minaya, Brooklyn, New York
  • Sofía Gallisá Muriente, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Carlos Soto, Bronx, New York
  • Robert Earl Paige, Chicago, Illinois
  • PIN–UP, New York, New York 
  • Ronald Rael, Oakland, California, and La Florida, Colorado 
  • William Scott, Oakland, California
  • Amie Siegel, Brooklyn, New York 
  • Renée Stout, Washington, DC

publication

The accompanying publication, Making Home: Belonging, Memory, and Utopia in the 21st Century, co-published with MIT Press, will feature scholarly essays together with first-person home stories, photo essays and conversations. All Design Triennial participants will contribute to the book alongside writers and critical thinkers who represent the expansive geographies, communities and legacies included in the exhibition. Available in February 2025, the publication will be designed by Sunny Park of Park-Langer, based in Los Angeles. ​

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The exhibition is organized by Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, Cooper Hewitt’s curator of contemporary design and Hintz Secretarial Scholar; Christina L. De León, Cooper Hewitt’s acting deputy director of curatorial and associate curator of Latino design; and Michelle Joan Wilkinson, curator of architecture and design at the National Museum of African American History and Culture; with curatorial assistants Sophia Gebara, Caroline O’Connell, Julie Pastor, and Isabel Strauss.

Exhibition design by Los Angeles–based Johnston Marklee. Graphic design by New York City–based Office Ben Ganz. 

SUPPORT

Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial is presented in collaboration with Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. This project received federal support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum; the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the National Museum of the American Latino; the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center; and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Generous support is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Support is also provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation; Edward and Helen Hintz; re:arc institute; the Keith Haring Foundation; the Lemberg Foundation; Maharam; and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

On View
Now through August 10, 2025
See the Exhibition
Purchase your ticket to the museum.
3 capes are suspended from the ceiling of a large, brightly lit room with windows on the back wall. The room has high ceilings, ornate crown molding, and the walls are decorated with floral wallpaper. The image is bordered in light purple. Text at the bottom reads: Making Home Smithsonian Design Triennial.
Curator Tour: Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial
In this curator-guided tour of Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, visitors will explore some of the exhibition’s 25 original commissions, highlighting design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional experiences of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. The exhibition is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established...
Post Type
Event
Event Date
December 6, 2024
Drop-In Sketching in the Galleries: Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial
Experience Cooper Hewitt’s collection and exhibitions through drawing! In this session, we'll sketch in the galleries of Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, which explores design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional experiences of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. The exhibition is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established in 2000 to address the most urgent topics of the time through the lens of design. This exhibition is full of visual imagery to spark the imagination for sketching! 
Post Type
Event
Event Date
December 11, 2024
DESIGN PRACTICE | NEEDLE FELTING WITH LIAM LEE
Build your design toolkit! Design Practice is a series of free, drop-in workshops for high school students exploring techniques, strategies, and careers in design. No prior experience required—just bring yourself and a creative mindset. This month, join us for a workshop with designer Liam Lee, whose work is featured in our current exhibition Making Home. Get inspired by Lee’s needle felting skills and learn how to create your very own needle-felted patch to add to a beanie. All materials are included! 
Post Type
Event
Read Time
3 minutes
Event Date
December 12, 2024
A large room with 3 dark leather sofas throughout. The walls are filled with framed artwork. The floor is carpeted in a bright blue. The image has a light purple border. Text at the bottom of the image reads: Making Home Smithsonian Design Triennial.
Shelfie Workshop with Black Artists + Designers Guild
Have you ever taken a “shelfie”? A “shelfie” is a photograph of a bookshelf in which the bookshelf’s contents reflect a portrait of the person to whom the contents belong. For this interactive workshop, join Black Artists + Designers Guild (BADG) to think about the power of home libraries, in conjunction with their installation “The Underground Library” in Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial.
Post Type
Event
Read Time
4 minutes
Event Date
December 13, 2024
Family Program | Print Your Own Woodtype Poster for the Holidays
Celebrate the holiday season by designing a letterpress poster to gift to a loved one or friend!
Post Type
Event
Event Date
December 14, 2024
3 capes are suspended from the ceiling of a large, brightly lit room with windows on the back wall. The room has high ceilings, ornate crown molding, and the walls are decorated with floral wallpaper. The image is bordered in light purple. Text at the bottom reads: Making Home Smithsonian Design Triennial.
Curator Tour: Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial
In this curator-guided tour of Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, visitors will explore some of the exhibition’s 25 original commissions, highlighting design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional experiences of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. The exhibition is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established...
Post Type
Event
Event Date
December 20, 2024
3 capes are suspended from the ceiling of a large, brightly lit room with windows on the back wall. The room has high ceilings, ornate crown molding, and the walls are decorated with floral wallpaper. The image is bordered in light purple. Text at the bottom reads: Making Home Smithsonian Design Triennial.
Curator Tour: Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial
In this curator-guided tour of Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, visitors will explore some of the exhibition’s 25 original commissions, highlighting design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional experiences of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. The exhibition is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established...
Post Type
Event
Event Date
January 17, 2025
3 capes are suspended from the ceiling of a large, brightly lit room with windows on the back wall. The room has high ceilings, ornate crown molding, and the walls are decorated with floral wallpaper. The image is bordered in light purple. Text at the bottom reads: Making Home Smithsonian Design Triennial.
Curator Tour: Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial
In this curator-guided tour of Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, visitors will explore some of the exhibition’s 25 original commissions, highlighting design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional experiences of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. The exhibition is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established...
Post Type
Event
Event Date
January 31, 2025
3 capes are suspended from the ceiling of a large, brightly lit room with windows on the back wall. The room has high ceilings, ornate crown molding, and the walls are decorated with floral wallpaper. The image is bordered in light purple. Text at the bottom reads: Making Home Smithsonian Design Triennial.
Curator Tour: Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial
In this curator-guided tour of Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, visitors will explore some of the exhibition’s 25 original commissions, highlighting design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional experiences of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. The exhibition is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established...
Post Type
Event
Event Date
November 15, 2024