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(https://www.buildllc.com/) Inspiring, Educating, and Empowering Students for the Next Generation of Design: An
Interview with Ruki Ravikumar, Part 1.
About
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1) Inspiring, Educating, and Empowering Students for
Team
the Next Generation of Design: An Interview with Ruki
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Ravikumar, Part 1.
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POSTED ON: 16 JULY, 2019
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[Images courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum]

Last winter, BUILD met up with Ruki Ravikumar, Director of

Enter email addr Education at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
in New York City. They talked about the Design Museum’s role
in America, a designer’s professional responsibility, and getting
Subscribe
the light bulbs to go on.

BUILD: Tell us a bit about your training and how it dovetails

with the mission of Cooper Hewitt.

Ruki Ravikumar: I have essentially had on the job training at

Cooper Hewitt; my role demands that I connect with a broad
 range of people and cultures, which has in turn provided me
with a wonderful, real time, learning environment. All of my
travels, and every job I’ve ever had, even the crazy ones, have
culminated in the work I’m doing now. I feel as though I’ve been
practicing for my entire life to be here.

What drew me to Cooper Hewitt is its clear mission to inspire,

educate and empower people through design. This is
significant. I could imagine myself contributing to this mission
at each level, and although education is the middle pillar, you
can’t educate someone without first inspiring them—and when
they are educated, they are empowered. So, these three words
guide everything I do.
(http://www.buildllc.com/)

Given that the Cooper Hewitt is the National Design Museum,

About what responsibility do you and your team shoulder?

(http://www.buildllc.com/about- Although we believe in the value of design and why we should

1) talk about it early in our curricula, as we travel the country and
Team visit schools, we notice a broad lack of discernment of the
(http://www.buildllc.com/team) subject. Given that Cooper Hewitt is America’s design museum,
Press part of our responsibility is to cultivate awareness. As a
(http://www.buildllc.com/press) museum, we have embraced the mission to spread design
Contact literacy before going into deeper provocations on what the
(http://www.buildllc.com/contact) future of design could be. Once opportunities for exposure to
Online Magazine design have been established, we can help people interpret the
(https://blog.buildllc.com/) world they live in and develop a design mindset. Everyone has
creative potential, and, in some sense, design is the most
relatable of all fields.
To search type and hit e
(https://blog.buildllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2004-
15-1-Matt-Flynn-1.jpg)

You’ve mentioned that you like to use specific objects within

(http://www.instagram.com/buildllc) Cooper Hewitt’s collection to engage with people. What’s an
example of this?

(http://www.facebook.com/buildllc) There is a piece in the collection called Bioimplantable Device

for Reconstructive Shoulder Surgery (England, 2004); the
(https://twitter.com/buildllc) material feels like a lacey doily, and it looks similar to a
snowflake. When most people look at it, they assume it’s a
(http://www.linkedin.com/company/build-
historic piece of embroidery; but, when we reveal that it’s a
llc)
medical device, they immediately want to know more. We
(https://follow.it/build-blog) explain that it connects the traditions of textiles with modern
medical research, and the result is a gorgeous piece of art that
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About Us

The BUILD Blog is a

discussion of modern
design and architecture,
created and written by
BUILD LLC,
(http://www.buildllc.com/) a
multi-disciplinary
architectural design firm
based in Seattle WA.

is used in joint reconstructive surgery. When educators start to

Themes
see this connection, they can relate; they start to talk about
collaborative work, and they want all of their students to be
Architectures
able to make relationships between biology and art. This is
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/architectures/)
what STEM education can do.
BUILD Behind the Scenes
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/build-
Which aspects of design in the United States would you most
llc/)
like to address with your mission?

BUILD Out in the World

As a museum, we’ve homed in on designers thinking about
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/out-
their professional responsibilities from many different angles.
in-the-world/)
Inclusive design is an excellent example; we’re having such
Diversity in Design
robust conversations about it and are learning that on some
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/diversity-
levels design unintentionally exiled people. We want things to
in-design/)
be better, faster, and leaner, and as part of this pursuit we’ve
Heroes
created things that don’t break down easily. If the current
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/build-
generation is more thoughtful about what we make, why we
heroes/)
make it, and what will happen to it when its useful life has
Interviews
expired, the next generation of designers will not be in the
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/interviews-
same reactive place as we are. No matter what we’re exhibiting
2/)
at Cooper Hewitt, whether it’s Access+Ability or The Road
On the Radar
Ahead: Reimagining Mobility, the common thread is about
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/on-
designers’ professional responsibility. Are they asking all of the
the-radar/)
right questions before they create something new?
Raising the Bar
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/raising-
What about the museum or the facilities do you wish more
the-bar/) people were aware of?

The collection is digitized, so you don’t have to be in New York

Sustainability to access it, and there are multiple ways to explore it, such as
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/sustainability-
by color, time period, culture, or country. It reinforces the notion
2/) that research is about losing yourself in something and making
Technical discoveries, rather than having a predefined idea about what
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/technical-
you will find. It’s a tool that people don’t use enough at Cooper
posts/) Hewitt.
The Modern List
(https://blog.buildllc.com/category/the-
modern-list/)

Popular Posts

The Process of Designing a

Home
(https://blog.buildllc.com/2008/09/the-
process-of-architecture/)
The Process of Commercial
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process-of-commercial- (https://blog.buildllc.com/wp-
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The Timeline of Designing a
Tell me about the Immersion Room at Cooper Hewitt.

Home
Museums have a reputation for don’t touch and look without
(https://blog.buildllc.com/2016/04/how-
experiencing, but that’s not our philosophy. We have entire
long-to-design-a-custom-
exhibits that are meant to be touched and interacted with in
home/)
order to understand what they’re doing. The point of the
Property Research Cheat-
Immersion Room is for people to have a highly experimental
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learning moment, for example, on wallpaper: visitors make
(https://blog.buildllc.com/2014/07/property-
drawings on digital tables, which are then duplicated, and the
research-cheat-sheet-2/)
patterns are projected onto the walls around them. Visitors
Construction Cost Cheat-
start to get the sense that a simply created swatch can
Sheet
become self-designed wallpaper, and it teaches about pattern
(https://blog.buildllc.com/2019/01/defining-
and repetition in design. The result is visitors who are inspired
a-construction-budget-the-
by basic principles of design. It’s just magic when you see the
2019-cheat-sheet/)
light bulb go on.
The Importance of
Experience
In today’s world of over-the-top sensationalism, where
(https://blog.buildllc.com/2009/05/the-
everyone is relentlessly promoting their own brand, how do
indispensable-importance-
you determine who is actually going to make significant
of-experience)
contributions to the future of design?

Every three years we assess the state of design through the

BUILD Statement on Design Triennial exhibition series; we look at it through different
Sustainibility lenses and consider where it is today and where it may be in
(https://blog.buildllc.com/2015/03/timeless-
the future. We’re currently examining the intersection between
design-as-sustainability/) design and nature: how is design facilitating natural processes,
A Guide to Square Feet how is design inspiring and protecting? As the curators explore
(https://blog.buildllc.com/2015/01/program-
the kind of work going on at this intersection, they uncover a
plan-and-square-feet/) seminal body of work. They learn about designers who are
Kitchen Design Principles pushing the boundaries of technology and approaching
(https://blog.buildllc.com/2013/12/5-problem solving in a more permanent way. Ultimately, they are
modern-kitchen-designs- thinking about how they can change an entire system.
principles/)
Timeless Material Palettes Cooper Hewitt is known for collections and exhibits that
explore nearly a quarter millennium of design and creativity.
(https://blog.buildllc.com/2014/05/fashion-
proof-material-palettes/") Given this depth of perspective, what observations about
The Design of Just Enough design might be less obvious to most of us?

Every day we rediscover something in our collection that we

(https://blog.buildllc.com/2016/04/lagom-
life-and-architecture/) hadn’t thought about in a given context before. For example, as
education becomes more tool-based, the separation widens
between the haves and the have-nots because schools in lower
Design Links income communities simply don’t have access. So, when
teaching about prototyping, it was important to us to identify
99% Invisible some very basic examples. We looked for examples of
(http://99percentinvisible.org/) prototypes made without 3-D printers, and we’re thinking about
ARCADE how we could better tell this story to inspire people. We visited
(http://arcadenw.org/) the work of Eva Zeisel, who developed beautiful prototypes
Arch Daily simply by cutting paper, and her work led to the discovery of a
(http://www.archdaily.com/) variety of designers working on similar problems. Little of this
Architecture Talk work has been published, and now we get to incorporate this
(https://www.architecturetalk.org/) design thinking and resultant projects into the curriculum.
BLDGBLOG Tools like this will allow us to get kids in lower-income
(http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/) communities to the same educational place as those with
Cereal more advanced tools. I’m constantly looking for better ways to
(https://readcereal.com/) connect people to the breadth of the stories we have at the
Co.Design museum.
(http://www.fastcodesign.com/)
Colossal In our awards-saturated design world, what separates Cooper
(http://www.thisiscolossal.com/) Hewitt’s National Design Awards?

Contemporist What makes it different is that the jury is comprised of an

(http://www.contemporist.com/) interdisciplinary panel of designers, so candidates are truly
Cool Hunter being assessed by peers in a broad range of fields. These
(http://www.thecoolhunter.net/) awards are the highest honor because the work grows out of a
cross-disciplinary approach.
Core77 What is important to understand about helping architects and
(http://www.core77.com/) designers to craft their legacies in the design world?

Design Milk (http://design- I think what Cooper Hewitt does well is to collect a multi-
milk.com/) layered story of designers and their work. As an educator, it’s
Detail (https://www.detail- important to understand that the two don’t have to go together;
online.com/) they’re not of a piece. When talking about the power of
Dezeen inclusive design, we don’t address the work of a single designer
(http://www.dezeen.com/) but instead reference every designer who has touched the
Life of an Architect problem. I think this is true of any good storyteller: they’re never
(http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/) just telling one story, but nested plots and various sub-stories.
Materialicious This is also true of Cooper Hewitt’s collection.
(http://www.materialicious.com/)
Moco Loco
(http://mocoloco.com/)
SwissMiss
(http://www.swiss-
miss.com/)
Wallpaper
(http://www.wallpaper.com/)

(http://www.instagram.com/buildllc)

(http://www.facebook.com/buildllc) (https://blog.buildllc.com/wp-
content/uploads/2019/07/Tablescapes_1577_2053.jpg)
(https://twitter.com/buildllc)
Which exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt are you most proud of and
(http://www.linkedin.com/company/build-
why?

llc)
I get excited about all of the exhibits because they each tell
(https://follow.it/build-blog) different stories, and they each will speak to a different
demographic. We recently had an exhibit called Tablescapes:
Designs for Dining, and in the beginning I was a little confused
about how to bring in teenagers from underserved areas of the
city and get them excited about an opulent French centerpiece.
Would I actually be working against myself because they won’t
relate to it? But, when we told them that at a certain point in
time dining was theater, and then showed them the minimalism
of Joe Doucet’s work and how he was inspired by a light bulb,
we saw them connect to the exhibition and draw comparisons.
It’s exciting for me to consider the range of stories an exhibition
may tell and who they will speak to and to then lure those
people into the museum.

Any favorite hidden gems in Manhattan?

The Big 9 sculpture at 9 West 57th Street by Ivan Chermayeff is

one of my favorites. As a graphic design student, anything I
first saw as a tiny picture in my textbooks I always wanted to
see in person, and this was at the top of my list.

What does the design world need more of?

A sense of humanity.

(https://blog.buildllc.com/wp-
content/uploads/2019/07/BoomBooks_Exclusive_002.jpg)

What is the one book that all designers should have on their
shelf?

Making Design—which illustrates Cooper Hewitt’s more than

210,000 objects. It’s a fantastic collection, and when I find
myself stuck trying to explain something to somebody, a quick
flip through the manual makes me think about different designs
over time. It’s a tremendous source of inspiration for designers,
and it also glows in the dark.

(https://blog.buildllc.com/wp-
content/uploads/2019/06/Ruki-
headshot.jpg)Ruki Ravikumar
(https://twitter.com/rukiravikumar?lang=en) is
the director of education at Cooper Hewitt.
Ruki serves as the principal leader responsible
for expanding Cooper Hewitt’s educational outreach initiatives,
including the National Design Awards, Design in the Classroom
National, and the National High School Design Competition,
both nationally and globally. Ruki holds a bachelor’s degree in
the history of fine art and drawing and painting from the
University of Madras and a Master of Fine Art in Graphic Design
from Iowa State University.

BUILD llc (http://www.buildllc.com/) is an industrious

architecture firm in Seattle run by Kevin Eckert, Andrew van
Leeuwen, Bart Gibson, and Carey Moran. The firm’s work
focuses on effective, sustainable, and sensible design. BUILD
llc operates an architectural office, contributes to ARCADE with
an ongoing interview series, and is most known for their
cultural leadership on the BUILD Blog.

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