Designed by Patrick Jouin (French, born 1967), Manufactured by Materialise NV, Leuven, Belgium, 2004, Epoxy resin, Museum purchase from the Members’ Acquisitions Fund of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2009-8-1, Photo: Matt Flynn As part of Cooper-Hewitt’s efforts to explore and document outstanding examples of innovative design, the Museum has begun to collect objects produced...
Jane and Benjamin Thompson, FAIA, collaborated for two decades on Design Research, the postwar emporium that introduced advanced designs from abroad. The book Design Research: The Store that Brought Modern Living to American Homes, by Jane Thompson and Alexandra Lange chronicles the renowned "General Store of Good Design," and reveals the backstory of the store...
For more than forty years Jan Gehl has helped to transform urban environments around the world based on his research into the ways people actually use—or could use—the spaces where they live and work. In this revolutionary book, Cities for People, Gehl presents his latest work creating (or recreating) cityscapes on a human scale. He...
Two significant tools for American designers seeking to make their design process more sustainable have recently been announced. The first tool, which hopefully will have broad and positive implications for manufacturers of outdoor industry goods, is Eco-Index . Basically an assessment tool which evaluates a product’s environmental impact, Eco-Index allows manufacturers to measure six...
Washington DC teens gathered at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery to learn about education and careers in design from the National Design Awards winners, finalists and jurors. These professionals are working in the fields of fashion, industrial design, architecture, multimedia, and graphic design. Tim Gunn and Cooper-Hewitt's Director of Education Caroline Payson lead...
Speaking to K-12 Educators from New York and across the country, Bill Moggridge addresses the question of 'What is Design?'. This is the keynote lecture for the Smithsonian Design Institute. http://cooperhewitt.org/EDU/community_programs.asp
New York City is widely considered an ecological nightmare—a wasteland of concrete and high-rises, diesel fumes and traffic jams, garbage and pollution. But, in the groundbreaking work of contrarian environmental thinking that is Green Metropolis, David Owen declares New York City as the greenest community in America. In Green Metropolis, David Owen conceives a new...
CIID Homepage The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design offers a sophisticated post-experience program in interaction design, attracting students from Denmark and all over the world, as well as consulting with companies and organizations. They have a lot of really interesting projects on their website spanning a range of sixteen courses. It’s well worth a browse!...
Rick Cook talks to the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt staff. Cook+Fox Architects is a firm devoted to creating environmentally responsible, high-performance buildings. The firm has become known for innovative design at the highest standard of environmental responsibility and for their commitment to excellence enriched by the collaborative process. Rick's work has been showcased at the National Building...
Yesterday I attended the kick-off event for Pioneers of Change, a festival of modern Dutch design, fashion, and architecture that is currently underway on Governor’s Island. Presented to celebrate the 400-year history of Dutch-American friendship, Pioneers of Change features installations by a number of leading Dutch designers in eleven former Officers’ houses at Nolan Park...
Most people go to exhibitions to look at the objects. Eggheads go to read the labels. Design geeks (and museum professionals like myself) want to study the installation itself. How are the platforms and cases constructed? How are the texts laid out? How are supplementary graphics handled? Cooper-Hewitt’s new exhibition Design for a Living World...
As a member of the 2009 National Design Awards Jury, let me first and foremost congratulate all of the winners and finalists. It was an exciting, exhausting, and inspiring process to review all the submissions and debate the merits and accomplishments of each. As a designer who has spent most of my career in the...
On May 14, 2009, Cooper-Hewitt opens Design for a Living World, an exhibition developed by The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s leading conservation organizations. As part of our partnership with TNC, Cooper-Hewitt met the challenge of publishing a companion book that would emphasize the exhibition’s principal themes: sustainable design and materials, and responsible conservation...
