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Arts & Culture / Design

A windowless cabin design concept by Spike Aerospace.

Craziest Airplane Cabins of the Future

These airplane cabin designs—both real and conceptual—show what might await us on flights in the near future

Cholera Belt, Dodd & Monk, Albert Mill, Canal Street, Congleton, Cheshire, 1882. With little understood about the disease, there were many bogus treatments and preventative measures against cholera. "The cholera belt seems like the most unlikely protection," writes Halls. "However, it was believed that a chilled body could cause disease, and that keeping the stomach and abdomen warm could protect against bowel complaints."

10 Victorian Inventions That Never Quite Took Off

Flops from a “knife and fork cleaner” to a “cholera belt” provide a curious look at life in 19th century England

After the devastating 2011 tsunami, the Japanese government spent billions of zen to build this sea wall along the Sendai Coastline. It's almost 20 miles long.

In an Era of Superstorms, This Exhibit Captures Our Shifting Relationship with the Earth’s Rising Seas

“Sink or Swim” shows how we’re learning to be smarter and more resilient in our response to increasingly unpredictable oceans and rivers

"Joe" and "Josephine" inThe Measure of Man posters, authored by Henry Dreyfuss, designed by Alvin R. Tilley, 1969

The Smithsonian Design Museum Tells the Story of User-Centered Design Through 120 Beautiful Products

A thermostat, a wheelchair, a prosthetic arm and razors are all a part of “Beautiful Users,” now on display in New York City

Andrew Carnegie built his mansion on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 91st Street, asking for the “most modest, plainest, and most roomy house in New York.”

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Makes Its Grand Re-Opening in New York City

The old and the new crash into each other beautifully in the former Carnegie mansion

The Hunger Games cornucopia from the first movie.

The Architecture of the Hunger Games’ Horns of Plenty

What inspired the architectural object at the center of the Hunger Games arena?

The Innovative Spirit - OLD

Designing for Seniors and Soldiers, Toward a “Silver” Architecture

Going green is good, but could architects be doing more for two segments of our population?

Rub the label to see if the food inside is still good to eat.

A Label You Rub To See If Food Has Expired and Other Finalists for the Dyson Award

There’s also a pen that lets you know when you should reapply your sunscreen and a device called Luke Stairwalker

A pixelated design by the architecture firm Snøhetta will soon grace Norway's money.

Architects and Designers Make Money for Norway

Literally, that is. Two firms have been selected to design Norway’s new currency.

Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, photographed here in Paris in 1993, died on October 20, 2014.

Oscar de la Renta, Star of the Smithsonian’s Costume Collection

The late de la Renta designed haute couture and ready-to-wear. A decade ago, he donated items to the Smithsonian

California-based artist emiko oye has been making jewelry out of LEGO products since 2006. Her work will be featured at the Smithsonian Craft2Wear show.

Lego Jewelry Transforms the Childhood Toy to High Fashion Art

Artist emiko oye turns colorful children’s blocks into items that are ready to wear, not play

The Annie Pfeiffer Chapel on the campus of Florida Southern College

Rebuilding a Frank Lloyd Wright Classic With 3-D Printed Blocks

A 70-year-old chapel on the campus of a Florida university is being restored thanks to new, innovative technology

Universal Studios in Hollywood has a stunt show and set inspired by the 1995 film Waterworld.

Anthropocene

10 Architectural Schemes That Could Help Us Adapt To Rising Seas

From a floating house to a mobile city shaped like a giant lilypad, designers offer up some wild solutions for a wetter future

People's Design Award collage

The People’s Design Award Promises a Very Cyborg Future

This year’s nominees focus on wearable technology

Peoples Design Awards

Vote for the Winner of the 2014 People’s Design Award

Marvel at these breakthroughs in innovative design and select your favorite

The hand-axe, reimagined.

Designers Remake Our Oldest Tool Using Our Newest Tool

More than a million years old, the hand axe is over due for an update

A new font for Cooper Hewitt

To Redesign a Design Museum Start with the Typeface

The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum is renovating and rebranding with a tailor-made typeface

These Smart Bricks Mean the Time Has Finally Arrived: Adults Have Legos of Their Own

A construction company aims to build more efficiently with modular connecting bricks

Marcel Breuer's proposed Roosevelt Memorial

Washington, D.C.

The Failed Attempt to Design a Memorial for Franklin Roosevelt

The debacle of the Eisenhower memorial is only the most recent entry in a grand D.C. tradition of fraught monuments

The LACMA exterior as seen from Wilshire Boulevard.

Why Museums Don’t Need Gleaming New Buildings, Especially Not in Los Angeles

An award-winning architect suggests that the city reconsider its plans to raze its iconic art museum

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