“Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial,” opening November 2 at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, features 25 debut commissions that illustrate the ways design is embedded in contemporary life. Domestic objects, built environments, and social systems are included in the exhibition, which considers home as an expansive framework with varying cultural and environmental contexts, and “making home” as a universal design practice. Organized in collaboration with Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and installed throughout the Andrew and Louise Carnegie Mansion, the exhibition explores design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional experiences of home across the U.S., U.S. territories, and tribal nations. The museum floors are organized by familiar interactions—“Going Home” (ground and first floor), “Seeking Home” (second floor), and “Building Home” (third floor)—interpreted in 25 installations by designers, architects, artists, and their collaborators from across the nation.
“Making Home” engages directly with the domestic history of Cooper Hewitt’s own home in the Carnegie Mansion. The exhibition design, by the architectural firm Johnston Marklee, draws inspiration from the building’s early 20th-century interiors, anchoring each floor with a central gathering space. Aspects of the Carnegie-era interior—including area rugs, drapery, upholstered furnishings, and brocades—are reintroduced through techniques of scaling, patterning, color saturation, and trompe l’oeil in contemporary industrial materials. The visual identity for “Making Home,” developed by Office Ben Ganz, contrasts bold designs with intricate details that reflect the mansion’s craftsmanship and decorative motifs. Reconnecting the building to its history as a home, exhibition texts and signage are deployed on reimagined home furnishings in the shape of folded screens and playful plinths.
During the course of the exhibition, Cooper Hewitt’s dynamic public programming will expand on the topics of “Making Home” with talks, performances, screenings, and hands-on workshops. Programs will invite all audiences—adult, family, teen, and visitors with disabilities—to explore the contemporary U.S. experience from cultural, environmental, and historical vantage points. The quarterly “Making Home Saturday Series,” launching November 2, will feature two in-person program segments, including special guests, curators, and Triennial participants. Programs will take place at Cooper Hewitt and beyond the museum at select organizations across New York City, and at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
