Design

A mural in Munich's former Olympic Village features Otl Aicher's pictograms.

The Tokyo Olympics

This Graphic Artist's Olympic Pictograms Changed Urban Design Forever

Having lived through Germany's Nazi regime, Otl Aicher went on to pioneer democratic design

Smith, who died in 1987 at age 39, was a rising star in fashion in the mid-1970s, with clothing designs priced and sized for everyday people. "Willi Smith: Street Couture" is on view at the Cooper Hewitt in New York City through October 24, 2021.

Fashion Designer Willi Smith Looked to the Streets for Inspiration and Appreciation

The 1970s founder of WilliWear combined high-end design with mass-market appeal

Sourcing her fish skin from Iceland, Elisa Palomino-Perez designs, dyes and assembles her fashion accessories. Bag handmade by Jay Zaccheus.

Innovation for Good

Does Fish Skin Have a Future in Fashion?

To promote sustainability in the industry, designer Elisa Palomino-Perez is embracing the traditional Indigenous practice of crafting with fish leather

Architect Julia Morgan is best known for California’s Hearst Castle.

Virtual Travel

Six Wonders Built by Pioneering Women Architects

Virtually explore these groundbreaking designs around the world, from an Italian villa to an American castle

“It’s not a historical museum,” Henrik Lübker says. “It’s more an existential museum.”

This Hans Christian Andersen Museum Asks You to Step Into a Fairy Tale

Opening soon in the storyteller's hometown of Odense, Denmark, the museum allows visitors to experience his multilayered stories

While many people have walked by the red door on Chicago's Wells Street, very few—likely less than one or two thousand—have ever gotten a chance to see what’s behind it.

Virtual Travel

A New Virtual Tour Takes Us Inside Architect Edgar Miller's Masterwork

Seen by few until now, Glasner Studio in Chicago's Old Town is a rich mix of stained glass windows, wood carvings, tilework and bas-reliefs

The liberal arts college is home to the country’s longest continuously operating broomcraft workshop.

Artisan America

This Kentucky College Has Been Making Brooms for 100 Years

Berea College's broomcraft program carries on an American craft tradition that’s rarely practiced today

Design I/O’s “Connected Worlds,” an interactive exhibit at The New York Hall of Science, New York, New York

Top Designers Strut Their Stuff at Cooper Hewitt Gala

Kickstarter, Gowanus Canal Sponge Park, TELFAR and others take home awards

The courtyard at Mexico City's Museo Nacional de Antropología could be a good model for a socially distant lobby space in future museums.

Covid-19

How Will Covid-19 Change the Way Museums Are Built?

The global pandemic will have long-lasting effects on the form and function of future museums

The little red car with the yellow roof that is propelled by foot power has been a hit with young children since its creation in 1979.

A Brief History of the Cozy Coupe

Invented by a former auto designer, the foot-powered kids toy still outsells engine-powered cars

Man’s Robe (China), 1796–1820

Smithsonian Voices

What Can You Create With These Five Design Treasures From the Cooper Hewitt Collections?

Open Access means you can share, remix and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images

Water runs from a hose into a hay bale pool.

Seven Ideas for Do-It-Yourself Backyard Pools

Build a personal oasis with everything from hay bales to scrap wood to a shipping container

The patio at the Laurent House.

This Frank Lloyd Wright Home Was a Trailblazing Example of Accessible Design

The Laurent House in Rockford, Illinois, was built 40 years before the Americans with Disabilities Act became law

Could New York be the Gotham we prize without the Guggenheim?

How New York Made Frank Lloyd Wright a Starchitect

The Wisconsin-born architect's buildings helped turn the city he once called an 'inglorious mantrap' into the center of the world

The main building of the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Nebraska, was built by famed modernist architect Edward Durell Stone.

Seven Spots Where You Can See Big-Name Architecture in Small-Town America

From gas stations to public libraries, these celebrity architect-designed buildings are worth a road trip

The Oosterscheldekering (Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier), between the islands Schouwen-Duiveland and Noord-Beveland, is the largest of the 13 ambitious Delta Works series of dams and storm surge barriers, designed to protect the Netherlands from flooding from the North Sea.

Cities Around the Globe Are Eagerly Importing a Dutch Speciality—Flood Prevention

Architects and planners from the Netherlands are advising coastal cities worldwide on how to live with water

Lucy Hughes holds a piece of MarinaTex.

This Bioplastic Made From Fish Scales Just Won the James Dyson Award

British product designer Lucy Hughes has invented a biodegradable plastic made from fish offcuts

Flight map of Air India destinations from 1962.

The Sleek History of Airline Maps

A new book explores the evolution of cartography throughout more than a century of commercial air travel

Susan Kare designed pictorial symbols that enabled non-technical users to operate a computer, a great contrast to previous screens with “command line” interfaces that required knowing code.

How Susan Kare Designed User-Friendly Icons for the First Macintosh

The graphic designer is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from Cooper Hewitt for her recognizable computer icons, typefaces and graphics

The Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab will be offshore of Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland for three years, in an effort to test its viability as a substrate for futuristic floating cities.

Designing Floating Buildings With an Eye to the Marine Species Living Underneath

A prototype deployed in San Francisco Bay imagines the underside of a floating building as an upside-down artificial reef

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