Why Design Now? - National Design Triennial, 2010

Why Design Now? - National Design Triennial, 2010

Alabama Chanin’s 2009 and 2010 collections are featured in Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s National Design Triennial, Why Design Now? The exhibition, curated by Ellen Lupton, Cara McCarty, Matilda McQuaid, and Cynthia Smith, with contributions by Andrea Lipps, highlights 134 projects from an array of fields that represent innovative, solution-based design, progressive use of resources, and environmentally conscious practices. Through the triennial’s overarching/core themes of energy, health, community, mobility, materials, prosperity, communication, and simplicity, it explores projects that share a common goal of working in harmony with the environment and offering solutions, both small and large in scale, for the global necessities of sustainability and social responsibility.


“Alabama Chanin’s practice signifies a commitment to the process of making and the regeneration of traditional craft in new contexts.” —Andrea Lipps from Why Design Now?, 2010 (page 101). 


Learn more about the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum here.


Slide 1: “Prosperity” featuring Alabama Chanin’s 2009 and 2010 collections from the Why Design Now? National Design Triennial catalogue, 2010, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, photograph by Robert Rausch

Slide 2: Why Design Now? National Design Triennial catalogue by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2010, photograph by Robert Rausch; Indigo-dyed coat with couching and embroidery from Alabama Chanin’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection, featured in Cooper Hewitt's Why Design Now? National Design Triennial catalogue, photograph by Peter Stanglmayr