By Slow Construct & Leroy Street Studio
Safe & Sound is an exhibition curated by Slow Construct in collaboration with Leroy Street Studio, presented at Allen Street Gallery as part of NYCxDesign. On view May 15 – June 26, 2026, the exhibition brings together 24 architect-makers and designers trained in the built environment whose work explores safety, comfort, and belonging through the idea of ‘home’ as shelter, cultural anchor, or place of refuge.
The Context
Home is where we’re supposed to feel safe. This exhibition explores the emotional and material cues that shape that experience: the objects that hold us, the textures that regulate us, the forms that shelter or signal and the small design decisions that quietly shift how we inhabit space.
This theme feels especially urgent now. We’re living through a period marked by instability: economic pressure, housing insecurity, climate volatility, political tension and the everyday overstimulation of modern life. In that context, “safety” becomes more than a basic need; it becomes a design question, a cultural question and a collective one. What does it mean to make—or find—home today? What do we reach for when we need grounding? And how can objects carry a sense of steadiness, refuge or repair?
The Brief
We seek work that makes you feel safe & sound at home. Submissions can be literal or abstract; domestic objects, speculative prototypes, collectible design pieces, artifacts of ritual, furniture, lighting, sculptural work or material studies. “Home” may be interpreted as a physical space, a social condition, a personal history, a political reality or an imagined future.
We’re especially interested in work that feels intentional in how it holds space. Works might evoke protection or tenderness; they might question who gets to feel safe and why; they might propose new forms of care in the built environment. We’re looking for clarity of concept and a strong relationship between the idea and the making.
The Artworks
Selected from 75+ open call submissions, the exhibition features architect-makers based across New York, London, and Paris, whose work spans art, furniture, lighting, and sculptural objects. In an era marked by political strain, housing uncertainty, and global instability, Safe & Sound asks what refuge looks like now—when the promise of home can feel fragile—and how art, design, and material choices can carry a sense of protection, comfort, and belonging.