A photo album in Cooper Hewitt’s collection documents the construction of a prototype house in Paris, France, that demonstrates the principles of Standard-Construction, a patented modular building system designed by French architect Hector Guimard in the early 20th century. Like many architects of his time, Guimard explored the possibility for standardization and prefabrication to streamline...
Thanks to support from the Smithsonian Latino Initiative, we are thrilled to offer the entire film for free. For audio descriptions, please visit https://youtu.be/YZldXBwtuCk Set in the remote San Luis Valley of Colorado, Mud Frontier: Architecture at the Borderlands is a feature-length documentary film that follows design studio Rael San Fratello’s experimentation with 3D-printing technology and...
The 19th-century department store and its successor, the modern mall, have continually evolved to attract and keep consumer attention for decades. Critic Alexandra Lange and Cooper Hewitt curator Emily Orr examine design’s leading role in the development and cultural impact of some of America’s most impressive shopping complexes. Sharing stories from their recent books on...
Stamen Design’s founder Eric Rodenbeck discusses the inspiration behind the design of Watercolor Maptiles, recently acquired by Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. Watercolor Maptiles is a web-based open-source mapping tool designed by Stamen Design, a San Francisco-based data visualization and cartography design studio and winner of the 2017 National Design Award in Interaction Design. Launched...
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum hosts this lively conversation among winners and jurors of the 2021 National Design Awards, which recognize innovation and impact and the power of design to change the world. The discussion looks at contemporary challenges and opportunities in design, including equity and climate change, as well as the role of collaboration...
This post was originally published January 18, 2013 and is being reposted in a belated commemoration of A.A. Milne’s birthday and the creation of this wonderful story and its beloved characters. This children’s frieze captures the adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin. This is a woodblock print and was produced within a year...
Wallpapers were rarely designed to be used alone, and fashions in wall treatments changed frequently. In the early twentieth century, wall treatments began to get simpler, consisting of a wallpaper and wide border, or frieze, and it remained popular to paper ceilings into the 1950s. This turf design is part of a matching set of...
From the archives, an Object of the Day blog post on Rockwood Pottery, one of the manufacturers featured in the exhibition Passion for the Exotic: Japonism.
Ruutu, Finnish for diamond or square, is the theme that is carried across the five sizes and seven hues of these modular glass vases. The vessels, created by French designers (and brothers), Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for the Finnish glass firm, Iittala, share a minimal, rectilinear style. Like other works by the Bouroullecs, the Ruutu...
Author: Zenia Malmer To the modern eye, this 19th century teapot, made by Edwin James Drew Bodley, who was in charge of an English china and earthenware manufacturer in Staffordshire, might border on kitsch. The spout, handle and edges are decorated with moulded bamboo stalks, with gilding to accentuate their nodes. Bright pink panels feature...
Walking through Central Park I enjoyed seeing all the brightly colored leaves in the trees, while the fallen leaves crunched underfoot. I thought this wallpaper with its warm colors and hints of green seemed to beautifully capture the essence of the fall day. This is a fairly stylized landscape scene which includes trees, vines, and...
Scenic wallpapers originated in the early years of the nineteenth century, and found a renewed popularity during the Colonial Revival movement in the early twentieth century. Many new designs in scenic papers and murals were introduced mid-century following World War II, and scenic papers did actually serve a purpose in these new homes as the...
Wrapped in a warm summer haze, a pair of birds, at the center of the composition, overlook a flowing stream surrounded by a flower filled landscape. The famed Windsor Castle idly appears in the background, surveying the quiet scene below. Hushed yellows and greys, in addition to the creamy white background, create an almost ethereal...
Topographies dazzles our eyes and walls with a trompe l’oeil effect that successfully tricks our senses—the seemingly three-dimensional surface is deceptively flat. To create the pattern, designers stacked multiple sheets of paper and tore away portions of the surface by hand, forming canyon-like valleys of various widths and depths. The wallcovering’s name refers to the...
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. This wallpaper delights with its lively motifs of birds and plants and playful stylization. The bright colors and presence of nature injects an otherwise strongly geometric and simplified rendition of an urban landscape with a cheerful energy....
