Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics
Exhibition Design
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. 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.
The pandemic revealed what some have known for a long time: breathing is spatial. Design and Healing reveals these implications at the scale of the body, building, city, and planet.
Credits
Bud Rodecker: Design Direction, Design
Alyssa Arnesen: Design
Rick Valicenti: Design Direction
MASS Design Group (Regina Chen, Jeffrey Mansfield, Michael Murphy, Morgan O’Hara, Maggie Stern) and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (Ellen Lupton, senior curator of contemporary design, and Julie Pastor, curatorial assistant): Curatorial Team
MASS Design Group (Annie Wang): Exhibition Design
Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution: Photography
