Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial | Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

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

Exhibition Highlights

Three white single-room structures with peaked roofs structures sit in a row near the entrance to a building made with red brick and carved sand-brown stone. The white structures are pierced and carved into dense, ornamental, filigree-like patterns. — Installation of “The House That Freedoms Built” by La Vaughn Belle in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Ann Sunwoo © Smithsonian Institution

Three textile panels hang against a wall of ornate wood moldings. The central panel has text reading, “Home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in. Robert Frost.” Drawn heads of two people are below and the rest is blocks of patterns. — Installation of “Fahara: Chicago in View” by Robert Earle Paige in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Curving, organically shaped brown couches and similarly sinuous sculptures are displayed in a room with an ornately carved ceiling and works of art hung over and between wall paneling. — Installation of “The Underground Library” by the Black Artists + Designers Guild in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Ann Sunwoo © Smithsonian Institution

Formed with what appears to be fluorescent-toned, thick cords, a hot pink settee, grape-purple low, square table, and forest- and lime-green chair sit in a room with wood paneling. A three-paneled grass-green screen appears on the right. — Installation of “Game Room” by Liam Lee and Tommy Mishima in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Ann Sunwoo © Smithsonian Institution

A screen floats in a darkened room with gold gilt ornament on white paneling. On the screen, a Black man looks off to our left, his lips parted. He has a mustache and short black hair. He is in front of painted landscape with mountains and trees. — Installation of “Vues/Views” by Amie Siegel in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Three Lenape capes made of textiles and feathers hang from the ceiling like chandeliers in a room with ornate molding and leafy wallpaper. Shown from low down to the ground, the capes have a forceful presence. — Installation of “Welcome to Territory” by Lenape Center with Joe Baker in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Ann Sunwoo © Smithsonian Institution

A wooden chair, sofa, side table, armoire, area rug, coffee table, and other furniture are gathered on a platform that takes up most of an elegant room with intricately carved wood paneling on the ceiling and walls, a fireplace, and a parquet floor. — Installation of “Living Room, Orlean, Virginia” by Hugh Hayden, Davóne Tines and Zack Winokur in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

A dining table is set with vividly colored and boldly patterned placemats and napkins. Chairs and settees around the table are upholstered with similarly striking designs. The room is paneled in wood beneath gilded wallpaper and a carved ceiling. — Installation of “The Offering” by Nicole Crowder and Hadiya Williams in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

A glass-enclosed room with a glass domed ceiling curves around us. Benches line the glass walls, which are framed with laurel-green molding. Two stations along the benches have headsets. Sun pours onto brick and wood buildings and trees outside. — Installation of “Ebb + Flow” by Artists in Residence in Everglades in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

A barrel-vaulted ceiling, like a curved tunnel, along a corridor is mottled with marine blue. Puffy white blossoms float among shimmering gold ripples. The corridor is lined with gray doors and paneling below. — Installation of “Recollection” by Joiri Minaya in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

A white chair, moss-green pie-crust table, area rug, and red side table nearly fill a small room, which is painted black. Two of three pictures hanging on the wall show stylized people and the third could be the galaxy below an oversized human eye. — Installation of “A Room to Simply, BE,” by Renée Stout in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

More than a dozen oval and square panels are hung on a long wall that seems to ripple in silver and pewter waves. The sign closest to us reads “Food, Conservation & Community” and it repeats in Spanish. Maps, landscapes, people, and stats follow. — Installation by East Jordan Middle/High School in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Ann Sunwoo © Smithsonian Institution

Three white architectural models appear in the center of the room. Colorful illustrations appear on the surrounding walls. — Installation of “Patterns of Life” by Mona Chalabi and SITU Research in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

A room with terracotta-orange walls is hung with paintings of buildings and people, a painted Denny’s restaurant sign, and a sign reading “William Scott’s Workshop Studio.” This studio sign and art-making materials are in a case to our right. — Installation of “Praise Frisco: Resurrection by Design” by William Scott in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Transparent plastic sheeting covers wall studs, which frame works of art, including two-dimensional pieces. A sculpture sits in a case in the room's center. — Installation of “Contrast Form Gestalt” by CFGNY in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Snapshot of nine light-skinned people, from baby to adults, sitting and posing together on benches in front of a house is projected on the wall opposite us. A textile hung over a fireplace to our left reads, “Home is where we are allowed to dream.” — Installation of “Dream Homes” by PIN–UP in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Dozens of bundles of dried tobacco leaves fill walls around two works of art and one area hung with five cast iron pans. One work of art is of a dark-skinned woman wearing blue clothing, a head covering, and apron as she holds and stirs in a bowl. — Installation of “So That You All Won’t Forget: Speculations on a Black Home in Rural Virginia” by Curry J. Hackett, Wayside Studio in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Installation shot of a wall panel with text over black and white photographs. A white uniform and documents are also on display, and a structure in the middle of the room has paneling and yellow leaves. — Installation of “Birthing in Alabama: Designing Spaces for Reproduction” by Lori A. Brown, Trish Cafferky and Dr. Yashica Robinson in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Ann Sunwoo © Smithsonian Institution

The thin, wide drawers of a gray slide cabinet are pulled out. Materials in shades of marigold and pumpkin orange and muted yellow fill the sections. Industrial-style glass and metal cases flank the platform on which this box sits. — Installation of “Unruly Subjects” by Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Sofía Gallisá Muriente and Carlos J. Soto in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Hundreds of glass vials with white stoppers hold a ruby-red substance, presumably blood. Four long rows moving away from us make an X shape as they recede into the distance to our left. Seemingly countless more line shelves along walls to our right. — Installation of “Is a Biobank a Home?” by Heather Dewey-Hagborg in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Ann Sunwoo © Smithsonian Institution

Wood planks lashed together with lime-green ties to create an arched tunnel or structure. The work stretches the depth of the room to reach the far wall, which is illustrated with midnight-blue mountains and white waterfalls and streams. — Installation of Hālau Kūkulu Hawaiʻi: A Home That Builds Multitudes by After Oceanic Built Environments Lab and Leong Leong Architecture in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Ann Sunwoo © Smithsonian Institution

A raft-like form made of twigs of various sizes is held up by two larger tree trunks and two concrete slabs to create a roof. Pictures, artifacts, and text are on the walls and in cases in the gallery around this installation. — Installation of “We:sic ’em ki” by Terrol Dew Johnson and ArandaLasch in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

Brick-shaped slices of earth, perhaps mud, are lined up on a scaffold-like, wood display of seven rows and about thirty columns. Most slabs have one or two labels. The footprint of the scaffold makes a narrow U shape, the opening toward us. — Installation of “Casa Desenterrada” by designer Ronald Rael in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

A cubicle-like room has a bed covered with a purple blanket and shelves lining the walls to our left and right. Light comes in from the open ceiling and two windows across from us. A cloth to our left is painted with words, including “chef apron.” — Installation of “Mobile Refuge Rooms,” designed by Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

A square table with two pairs of chairs facing each other sits in front of nearly floor-to-ceiling windows with a scene of a verdant garden. A sign inside reads “Activities in Senior Housing.” — Installation of “Aging and The Meaning of Home” by Hord Coplan Macht in “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution

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.