The Nature Conservancy and the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will present "Design for a Living World," a travelling exhibition featuring objects created by leading designers and made from sustainable, natural materials. The exhibition will premiere at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum on May 14 and continue through Jan. 4, 2010.
The designers are Yves Behar, Stephen Burks, Hella Jongerius, Maya Lin, Christien Meindertsma, Isaac Mizrahi, Abbott Miller, Ted Muehling, Kate Spade and Ezri Tarazi.
The Nature Conservancy collaborated with prominent designers from the worlds of fashion, industrial and furniture design, and each designer focused on a natural material from a specific place where the Conservancy works. The locations ranged from iconic American landscapes, such as the sweeping grasslands of Idaho, to such exotic places as the southwest coast of Australia and the forests of China's Yunnan Province. The designs explore the transformation of organic items-wood, plants, wool- into beautiful and useful objects. By choosing sustainable materials that support, rather than deplete, endangered places, designers can help reshape our materials economy and advance a global conservation ethic. Through this process, the exhibition reveals fascinating stories about regeneration, natural places and the human connection to the Earth's lands and waters.
Excerpted from Dexigner Cooper Hewitt
