Previously On View: December 10, 2021 through March 19, 2023

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This exhibition, curated by MASS Design Group and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, was organized during the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. 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. Everyone on Earth has been affected by the pandemic. Unequal access to housing, jobs, and health care ensured that COVID-19 hit marginalized communities harder than others.

This exhibition presents architectural case studies and historical narratives alongside creative design responses to COVID-19. Every designer, artist, doctor, engineer, or neighbor featured in the exhibition asked, “How can I help?” They used open-source collaboration, rapid-response prototyping, product hacking, and social activism to create medical devices, protective gear, infographics, political posters, architecture, and community services—all with the shared aspiration to reduce structural barriers that keep us from accessing the care we all deserve.

Exhibition Dates
December 10, 2021 through March 19, 2023
View All Exhibition Objects
Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics

Highlights

A selection of objects featured in the exhibition.

Installation

Publications

     

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Curatorial team: MASS 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)
Exhibition designer: MASS Design Group (Annie Wang)
Graphic designers: Span (Alyssa Arnesen and Bud Rodecker) and Rick Valicenti

Support

Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics is made possible with major support from Crystal and Chris Sacca.

Generous support is also provided by Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Cooper Hewitt Master’s Program Fund.

 

From the Blog

GHESKIO Cholera Treatment Center
Cholera—a curable, preventable disease—did not exist in Haiti before the earthquake of 2010. The GHESKIO health center asked MASS Design Group to design a permanent facility to replace temporary cholera treatment tents. The Cholera Treatment Center creates its own water and sanitation infrastructure. A rainwater catchment system collects and filters water. The building can sanitize...
Post Type
Assisted Breathing
Most modern ventilators actively force air into the lungs. In contrast, several recent devices change the air pressure around the body to make the chest expand and contract passively. This gentler form of ventilation is more like natural breathing. These new devices are reviving the principle of the iron lung, which saved thousands of lives...
Post Type
The Mega Hospital
Today, vast health networks sprawl across cities and regions, serving as engines of employment and economic growth. Hospital design must account for complex equipment, disaster-safe infrastructure, flexible use, future growth, and the daily flow of patients, families, and workers. Content from the exhibition Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics, curated by MASS Design Group...
Post Type

Past Events

Virtual Book Talk: The Architecture of Health with Michael Murphy and Michael Kimmelman
What is architecture’s impact on the physical and social wellness of society? Why are our buildings making us sicker? MASS Design Group explores these questions and more in its latest book, The Architecture of Health: Hospital Design and the Construction of Dignity (Nov. 2021), published by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (Artbook DAP, distributors). The book examines how our built world was shaped by disease and reveals how historical examples can offer us caution and inspiration. Join us for a virtual book talk with author Michael Murphy, Founding Principal and Executive Director of MASS Design Group, in conversation with Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for the New York Times.
Event Date
December 14, 2021