Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics

This exhibition, curated by MASS Design Group and Cooper Hewitt, SmithsonianDesign Museum, was organized during the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. Thepandemic revealed what some have known for a long time: breathing is spatial.This fact has implications at the scale of the body, building, city, andplanet. Everyone on Earth has been affected by the pandemic. Unequal access tohousing, jobs, and health care ensured that COVID-19 hit marginalizedcommunities harder than others.

This exhibitionpresents architectural case studies and historical narratives alongsidecreative design responses to COVID-19. Every designer, artist, doctor,engineer, or neighbor featured in the exhibition asked, “How can I help?” Theyused 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 sharedaspiration to reduce structural barriers that keep us from accessing the carewe all deserve.

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