“Ten leading designers have been commissioned to develop new uses for sustainably grown and harvested materials in order to tell a unique story about the life-cycle of materials and the power of conservation and design.

The featured designers and places include Yves Behar/Costa Rica; Stephen Burks/Australia; Hella Jongerius/Mexico; Maya Lin/Maine; Christien Meindertsma/Idaho; Isaac Mizrahi/Alaska; Abbott Miller/Bolivia; Ted Muehling/Micronesia; Kate Spade/Bolivia; and Ezri Tarazi/China.”

In the gallery below are both press photos and photos I took on my trip to the museum (DESIGN FOR A LIVING WORLD on view until Jan 4, 2010):

“Our goal with the exhibition is to connect audiences to the natural world by exploring the story of place through innovative design,” said Mark Tercek, president and chief executive of The Nature Conservancy. “‘Design for a Living World’ challenges us to think about the products we use—where they come from, how they are made and what the impacts are on our planet and on local communities.”

Here’s a video of Maya Lin talking about her project:

To see more videos about each project, click through to the Cooper Hewitt website <here>.

“Design for a Living World” is co-curated by Abbot Miller, a partner at PENTAGRAM. Check out the post about the exhibition at the Pentagram blog <here>.

I finally got to visit the Cooper Hewitt – which has two ongoing ambitious exhibitions.

On the first floor, you’ll find Design USA: Contemporary Innovation (October 16, 2009–April 4, 2010).

“Design USA celebrates the accomplishments of the winners honored during the first ten years of the prestigious National Design Awards. The exhibition features outstanding contemporary achievements in American architecture, landscape design, interior design, product design, communication design, corporate design, interaction design, and fashion. Design USA focuses on innovation through the lens of technology, material, method, craft and transformation.”

Click through to the DESIGN USA website and see the full list of the past decade of award winners and much better photos of their work (like the ones below) > INTRO PAGE

CRAFT / YeohLee Teng

EXPERIENCE / Robert Greenberg

TECHNOLOGY / Perceptive Pixel

MATERIALS / Bill Stumpf

METHOD / Shop Architects