Our design for Oslo Nasjonalmuseet’s exhibition of architectural drawing since the 2008 global financial crisis pairs today’s imperative for sustainable exhibition design with a curatorial emphasis on the process of making. ‘Hand and Machine’ features drawings by 40 international architectural practices ranging from collective computer-generated designs to hand drawings. It presents the act of drawing as a way of understanding and articulating the world.

We took a cultivated ad-hoc approach to the design of the exhibition, catalogue and marketing campaign. We commissioned photographer Max Creasy to photograph the exhibitors’ studios and workplaces and used the images large scale on the gallery floor. We displayed the exhibits making use of existing back-of-house museum furniture and display units. For the show’s typographic identity we laid bare the conditions of a typeface’s making by showing the geometric bounding boxes and radii offered by typeface-design software.

The orchestrated informality of our design positions the visitor into a archaeological slice through a moment of making.