Furnishing Utopia 4.0: Drawing Upon Frameworks

For the 2019 exhibit,Drawing Upon Frameworks, Furnishing Utopia shall exhibit work of 20+international designers' hand-drawn or hand-created two dimensional work that explores the idea of how frameworks, both formal and conceptual, can drive design practice and discourse. The variety of work from pencil sketches to shape collages challenge designers and visitors alike to think abstractly about the structures and conventions that define society today in consideration for how one can live more harmoniously within, around, or without them.

Drawing Upon Frameworks is the first installment of a multi-part Furnishing Utopia initiative exploring the utopian ideals behind Modernism. Through a series of workshops and challenges, the project prompts Furnishing Utopia designers to reflect on modernism's past while embracing the possibilities for the future. Beginning with a foundational understanding of the thinking that governed work from the Bauhaus to Frank Lloyd Wright, the group draws on in-person workshop experiences to reveal the effect of how modern frameworks manifested and evolved over time and context. Drawing Upon Frameworks celebrates the contemporary viewpoint following this experience through the lens of a diverse group of international design thinkers and makers.