ADAPT/EVOLVE: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Adaptive and Inclusive Design
About this Item
- Title
- ADAPT/EVOLVE: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Adaptive and Inclusive Design
- Date
- 2025
- Description
- Exhibition Date: September 18–October 26, 2025
- Location: Art and Design Gallery
- Adapt/Evolve is a multidisciplinary exhibition that considers various approaches to designing for accessibility as well as adaptive design’s relationship to culture and society. Fashion, jewelry, toy, and interior designs by FIT faculty, students, alumni, and invited designers and artists highlight creative new approaches to adaptive and inclusive design. The design objects and projects on view in Adapt/Evolve bring to light a network of care, interdependence, and access to good design for all, paving the way to a built world that supports everyone.
- Artists, designers, and makers in the exhibition redefine accessible design, creating objects from stylish mobility aids to community-focused solutions that prioritize both function and human dignity. Fashion designs are inclusively re-envisioned by alums, including Vertige Adaptive by Haley Schwartz (FIT 2022), Slick Chicks by Helya Mohammedian (FIT 2004), and Kevin Santana (FIT 2025). A project by Fashion Design faculty, Amy Sperber, to create virtual reality avatars for diverse bodies ensures that everyone has the perfect fit. Navigation accessories are reimagined by Footwear and Accessories alum Keith Kirkland (FIT 2010) as stylish haptic devices to guide the blind or assist in physical therapy recovery. Toys specifically engineered to appeal to autistic children by FIT Toy Design students also appeal to all children. Interior furnishings by OFS support not only medical environments but also office interiors where everyone can contribute meaningfully regardless of their personal needs. Artist Alex Strada presents a socially engaged mobile project that facilitates redistribution and mutual aid to support people experiencing homelessness. Adaptive Design Association objects for mobility, play, and communication provide creative design interventions for people with disabilities through co-creating with clients, caregivers, educators, and therapists.
- Related Materials
-
Symposium: Adapt/Evolve
-
Adapt/Evolve: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Adaptive and Inclusive Design
- Rights
- In Copyright
- All items in this record are created by the Fashion Institute of Technology ("FIT") and the properties of FIT. FIT expressly prohibits the copying, displaying, or uploading to a website of any portion of these images, except for the purposes of fair use as defined in the copyright laws, without express written permission from FIT. These images have been made available online by the Fashion Institute of Technology Gladys Marcus Library strictly for research and educational purposes. If you are the copyright holder for content in these images and have any objections to this work being made available online, please notify us immediately at [email protected].
- Identifier
- FIT Repository ID: adg_000046
Citation
ADAPT/EVOLVE: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Adaptive and Inclusive Design. (2025). FIT Institutional Repository. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/668860
ADAPT/EVOLVE: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Adaptive and Inclusive Design. 2025. FIT Digital Repository, https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/668860
"ADAPT/EVOLVE: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Adaptive and Inclusive Design." FIT Digital Repository, 2025. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/668860