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Arts & Culture / Design

“We design the garments around what parents want for their children, what occupational therapists are asking for, what children are saying they’re most comfortable in,” says Sasha Radwan, founder of SpecialKids.Company.

Designing “Adaptive Clothing” For Those With Special Needs

Companies are releasing new inclusive lines that solve some of the dressing challenges that people with physical and mental disabilities face

IBM would like to teach its tool to design entire garments given just a few specifications.

Future of Art

Artificial Intelligence Could Help Generate the Next Big Fashion Trends

With a tool called Cognitive Prints, designers will be able to riff off of past styles and incorporate outside inspiration like never before

RUBE GOLDBERG ® is a registered trademark of Rube Goldberg Inc. All materials used with permission. rubegoldberg.com. The Art of Rube Goldberg on view March 15–July 8, 2018 at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

The Story Behind Rube Goldberg’s Complicated Contraptions

In his time he was a world-famous cartoonist, but today he’s best known for these wacky inventions

The Smithsonian Craft Show in 2010

Future of Art

How the Work of a Sculptor and a Doctor Landed In the Nation’s Top Craft Show

More than 100 artists in the 36th annual Smithsonian Craft Show capture Asia’s influence on American design

People – but maybe not computers – can tell whether this is a person’s face or the Great Mosque of Cordoba.

Future of Art

Just Like Faces, Buildings Have Features That Algorithms Can Recognize

An art historian explains how he uses ‘facial recognition’ to unlock architectural secrets

The museum's situation on the National Mall gives it access to ample water and sunlight.

The African American History and Culture Museum Wins Gold for Going Green

How the Smithsonian’s newest museum set the bar for sustainability in architecture

Formerly an arcade and office building, dating to 1917, the structure underwent a city-led restoration and reopened last year as the Hotel Manzana Kempinski.

Tony Perrottet's Cuba

The Man Who Saved Havana

As its greatest old buildings were falling down, a fearless historian named Eusebio Leal remade the city into a stunning world destination

Amdavad Ni Gufa

These Unique Buildings in India Just Won the Biggest Award in Architecture

The 90-year-old is the first Indian architect to win the Pritzker Prize

Is this machine adding an antenna to the fabric?

Embroidering Electronics Into the Next Generation of ‘Smart’ Fabrics

Is an archaic sewing skill a key to connected, sensing, communicating fabrics of the future?

Costume designer Ruth Carter says she found inspiration in the tradition and costume of African peoples. She thrilled over Ndebele neck rings, Suri face paint, and Zulu headgear and blankets and asked her crew to stay true to these traditions.

The New Director of the Smithsonian’s African Art Museum Reflects on the Look and Fashion of Black Panther

The blockbuster movie borrowed from multiple African peoples to create a unique Wakandan style

Urban Thinkspace in Philadelphia

Weaving Games and Puzzles Into the Fabric of a City

To encourage playful learning, Urban Thinkspace and other projects put miniature playgrounds along the paths kids travel

In Los Angeles, the architecture firm KTGY is repurposing shipping containers to build a transitional apartment complex for the homeless.

Three Architecture Projects That Will Build Community and Address Inequality This Year

These projects set to be completed this year are geared toward strengthening communities that have been left out of the economic recovery

Ivan Chermayeff (June 6, 1932-December 2, 2017)

Commentary

Designer of the Smithsonian Sunburst Logo Dies

Ivan Chermayeff was a brilliant designer, a gifted artist and the purveyor of a unique visual language, says Smithsonian curator Ellen Lupton

The inherent flexibility and adaptability of the Shotgun Chameleon House in Houston grew from designer Zui Ng’s desire to create an economically and environmentally sustainable house. The exterior staircase serves as a separate entrance for potential renters.

What the Housing Market in America Needs Is More Options

From granny pods to morphing apartments, the future of shelter is evolving

Little Children on a Bicycle

How Instagram Is Changing the Way We Design Cultural Spaces

As neighborhoods, restaurants and museums become more photogenic, are we experiencing an “Instagramization” of the world?

The minimLET toilet kit

A Sleek Portable Toilet and Other Design Solutions for Disaster Victims

The toilet kit, from a Japanese design studio, is part of wave of interest in design fixes for the problems created by disasters

Wine grapes grow in the shadow of Mount Ararat.

Armenia

How Mobile Wine-Tasting Rooms Could Revolutionize Armenian Wine Country

“Wine Cubes” will be popping up on Armenian vineyards—and building up the country’s enotourism industry

Virginia Tech, whose Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) was instrumental in bringing the festival to fruition, exhibited on Day 1 a cutting-edge robotic fabrication system.

These Collegiate Innovators Are at the Vanguard of Technology and Art

A massive three-day festival spotlights the achievements of the Atlantic Coast Conference

From left: The bell tower of the “Fish Church,” in Stamford, Connecticut; the Sculpture Gallery at Philip Johnson’s Glass House, in New Canaan.

Every Modern Architecture Lover Should Take This Three-Day Road Trip

In Connecticut, works by some of the most notable architects of the 20th century are hiding in plain sight. Take the wheel for this sightseeing tour

Danish architecture firm THIRD NATURE's POP-UP project stacks a parking garage on top of a water reservoir.

What Can Cities Do to Go “Blue”?

In a number of projects and proposals, architects and urban planners are working with water instead of against it

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