Intervention on the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum

2022

In collaboration with Qingmai Ni; professors Florian Idenburg and Karilyn Johanesen

Model made from wood, paper, mesh, thread. 12 x 12 x 12”

This project began with the belief that the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum—housed in the historic Carnegie Mansion, just one block from the Guggenheim on Manhattan’s Upper East Side—deserves recognition as a peer among New York City’s major art institutions.

The Hewitt sisters originally curated Andrew Carnegie’s collection of design objects with the conviction that these artifacts should not merely be preserved, but actively engaged with—to inspire and educate future generations of designers. Today, however, the museum’s layout and display methods often confine these objects rather than enliven them. Our design proposes a space that invites multiple modes of interaction, offering diverse ways of experiencing these elements of design.

At the heart of this project is the physical relationship between the viewer and the object—and just as importantly, between viewers themselves. These spatial relationships help reframe, recontextualize, and reawaken the objects’ meanings. The proposed intervention takes shape partly as a surreal cloud hovering above the mansion, and partly as a minimal wall anchored to its northwest corner—transforming the mansion itself into a central design element.

DIAGRAMATIC SECTION (1), PROPOSED WALL TO FRAME THE CARNEGIE MANSION (2).