Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics
- Awards
- STA 100 2022
- Credits
-
Bud Rodecker
Design Direction, DesignAlyssa Arnesen
DesignRick Valicenti
Design DirectionMASS Design Group (Regina Chen, Jeffrey Mansfield, Michael Murphy, Morgan O’Hara and Maggie Stern). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (Ellen Lupton, senior curator of contemporary design, and Julie Pastor, curatorial assistant)
Curatorial TeamMASS Design Group (Annie Wang)
Exhibition DesignMatt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution
Photography
- Also
Selected Press:
A Timely Cooper Hewitt Museum Exhibit Prompts Designers To Overcome The Disinformation Of Anti-Vaxxers
Forbes, December 24, 2021Can Architecture and Design Facilitate Healing?
Metropolis, December 21, 2021Epidemics: A Force for Life-Changing Innovation
The New York Times, December 21, 2021How to survive a pandemic? Courage, resiliency and resistance to bad ideas.
The Washington Post, December 16, 2021Designing for a Pandemic
The Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2021
Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics asks the question: What is design’s role in times of crisis? This exhibition presents architectural case studies and historical narratives alongside creative design responses to COVID-19, featuring the work of designers, artists, doctors, engineers, and neighbors who asked, “How can I help?” In response to crisis, they created medical devices, PPE, mutual aid, infographics, posters, and architecture. Their creative actions have included open-source collaboration, rapid-response prototyping, hacking, and activism.
Span worked with MASS Design Group and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum to design the exhibition graphics. The design and ideas of the book The Architecture of Health: Hospital Design and the Construction of Dignity were adapted into a physical experience.
The pandemic revealed what some have known for a long time: breathing is spatial. This fact has implications at the scale of the body, building, city, and planet.
The exhibition ends with a meditative breathing space where visitors can peruse through copies of The Architecture of Health.
To ensure maximum accessibility, the exhibition design meets all ADA requirements for type size, position, and contrast.
Span also designed digital invitations for the exhibit preview.
