FUTURES

FUTURES is a Smithsonian Institution 175th anniversary exhibition at the Arts & Industries building from November 2021 to July 2022. Designed by Rockwell Group, LAB, 2x4. The exhibition welcomed 650, 000 visitors.

The Challenge

Smithsonian Institution (SI) approached Rockwell Group to design an exhibition for their 175th Anniversary in the Arts and Industries Building (AIB)- Celebrating the future with curiosity and optimism. We are tasked with:

A tight schedule, as the big exhibition has to open in less than a year.
A limited budget, as SI is a government institute.
Stringent building code, as AIB was built in 1881 with historical significance.

Project Approach

Part exhibition, part festival. Every hall is designed with different character, like the World Expo.

Experiential Approach: Multiple FUTURES instead of singular future as depicted from past exhibitions about the future: visitors should freely flow around and explore the exhibits and halls.
Practical Approach: We worked out how much space we can clean up and develop based on our limited budget and stringent building code.

Key Development

In the exhibition journey, visitors can see past future-making artifacts sit in conversation with contemporary objects, provoking questions that address both the hopeful and the ambiguous nature of future-casting. "FUTURES" invites artists, designers, and the public to respond to help imagine the many futures that could be.

For the pavilions, we sourced sustainable and grade A fire-rated materials and furniture only, and designed them to be all inclusive, equitable and ADA accessible.

The Outcome

The exhibition welcomed 650,000 visitors within our design of approximately 30,000 square feet of exhibition space at the AIB. By the numbers:

65,000 action commitments made for a better future
30,000 kids guides distributed to inspire the next generation
5,000 articles written about FUTURES
100 school and community group visits
1 marriage proposal

“We want the exhibition in the historic Arts & Industries Building to feel like a modern carnival - celebrating the future with curiosity and optimism.”

Part exhibition, part festival, “FUTURES” is a prototype for the building’s next big chapter and its first major exhibition in 40 years. Past future-making artifacts sit in conversation with contemporary objects, provoking questions that address both the hopeful and the ambiguous nature of future-casting. “FUTURES” invites artists, designers, and the public to respond to help imagine the many futures that could be.

We designed approximately 30,000 square feet of exhibition space in the four main halls off of the AIB’s central rotunda. The LAB at Rockwell Group contributed a unifying layer of interactive digital storytelling, involving UI/UX design and software development.

Future Past

North Hall diagram. Credit: Rockwell Group

Futures Past Exhibits. Credit: Ron Blunt

Futures Past Exhibit, and S-Tunnel. Credit: Ron Blunt

Futures Posters by Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination. Credit: Albert Ting

Soft Bank Future Transformation Tunnel that leads to the Rotunda. Credit: Ron Blunt

Soft Bank Interactive Wall at the end of the exhibition journey. Credit: Ron Blunt

“It is about looking back to past generations’ futures and encouraging visitors to realise that our own sense of our future is relative to our present, and will probably look quite different in the future.” — Glenn Adamson

Past future-making artifacts sit in conversation with contemporary objects, provoking questions that address both the hopeful and the ambiguous nature of future-casting. "FUTURES" invites artists, designers, and the public to respond to help imagine the many futures that could be.

Pavilions

Initial sketches for slow pavilion

As the AIB is a historical building from 1881, there is a long list of budget, code and safety constraints, to name a few, the pavilions have to be:

≤ 300 square feet
20’ apart from each other
10’ away from historical walls
Host 30-50 objects
Free standing and structurally self-supportive
Made by sustainable and grade A fire-rated materials only
ADA accessible and inclusive

Futures that Unite

South Hall Pavilion. Credit: Albert Ting

Pavilion during construction on site. Credit: Erin Schaff/New York Times

Pavilion during construction in workshop. Credit: Rockwell Group

South Hall Pavilion Front View. Credit: FotoBriceno

A Citizen Science education space in the Futures that Unite portion of the exhibition. Note how the purple panels mimic the stained windows the the Arts & Industries Building.

Futures that Unite explores how we relate to one another with new ways to connect and collaborate - all aiming to tap into our collective humanity. As our future dreams turn into reality, perhaps we should place the greatest value on one another. The pavilion is composed of 2x4 wood joinery to create a natural and familiar gathering place. The pavilion hosts a 16’ long graphics exhibit, two desks with 5 interactive exhibits, and a few sound generating robots/games. ︎