This fall, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will exhibit Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial. The museum has commissioned 25 site-specific installations examining “design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional realities of home across the U.S.,” as stated in a press release. The multi-floor exhibition will be on view at the Andrew and Louise Carnegie Mansion from November 2, 2024 through Summer 2025. It will be the seventh iteration of the museum’s Design Triennial series, which began in 2000, and is in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“All of [the installations] gesture towards a greater understanding of how we are living in this nation and how design plays an active role in this shared experience,” Maria Nicanor, director of Cooper Hewitt, said in a statement.
The museum previously announced the three curators of the upcoming Smithsonian Design Triennial: Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, curator of contemporary design and Hintz Secretarial Scholar at Cooper Hewitt; Christina L. De León, associate curator of Latino design at Cooper Hewitt; and Michelle Joan Wilkinson, curator of architecture and design at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Each floor at the Andrew and Louise Carnegie Mansion will be dedicated to a specific theme. Going Home presents the diverse ways that domestic spaces impact people’s “experiences, behaviors, and values,” while Seeking Home explores the concept of home through the “lenses of cultural heritage, the human body, imagined landscapes, and refuge.” The final theme, Building Home, pushes beyond the single-family construction model to consider new ways of conceptualizing and designing the home, such as cooperative living, community space, land stewardship, decolonial practices, and historic preservation.
Selected participants include Leong Leong, architecture studio and design consultancy founded by brothers Chris and Dominic Leong. For the Smithsonian Design Triennial, the practice is partnering with After Oceanic Built Environments Lab. The New York–based firm is behind the exhibition design of this year’s Met Costume Institute spring show, Sleeping Beauties. Other architects and designers on the list include: Aranda\Lasch and Ronald Rael of Rael San Fratello.
Other participants include collectives and organizations focused on underrepresented groups, among these, The Black Artists + Design Guild, a “community of independent Black makers,” and the Lenape Center, an arts-focused nonprofit helmed by Joe Baker, a member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians. Creative individuals taking part in the Smithsonian Design Triennial are sculptor Renée Stout, who designs sculptures regarding the African Diaspora and the spiritual realm; and visual artist Amie Siegel.
An accompanying publication, Making Home: Belonging, Memory, and Utopia in the 21st Century, will be co-published with MIT Press and designed by Sunny Park of creative studio Park-Langer. The publication will encompass scholarly essays, first-person home stories, photo essays, and conversations. In addition to external contributors, all Design Triennial participants will create work for the book.
The full list of participants taking part in the Smithsonian Design Triennial is included below.
After Oceanic Built Environments Lab (Honolulu) and Leong Leong (Brooklyn, New York)
Artists in Residence in Everglades (Miami)
La Vaughn Belle (St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands)
Black Artists + Designers Guild (Brooklyn, New York)
Lori A. Brown (Syracuse, New York), Trish Cafferky (Boston) and Dr. Yashica Robinson (Huntsville, Alabama)
CFGNY (New York)
Mona Chalabi and SITU Research (Brooklyn, New York)
Nicole Crowder (St. Paul, Minnesota) and Hadiya Williams (Washington, D.C.)
Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (Oakland, California)
Heather Dewey-Hagborg (New York)
East Jordan Middle & High Schools (East Jordan, Michigan)
Curry J. Hackett, Wayside Studio (Washington, D.C., and New York)
Hugh Hayden (Brooklyn, New York), Davóne Tines (New York) and Zack Winokur (New York)
Hord Coplan Macht (Baltimore)
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 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)
PIN–UP (New York)
Ronald Rael (Oakland, California and La Florida, Colorado)
William Scott (Oakland, California)
Amie Siegel (Brooklyn, New York)
Renée Stout (Washington, D.C.)
