From the Black Death to leprosy, smallpox, ebola - even the fictional Andromeda Strain - deadly diseases have resulted in the need to isolate large numbers of people from the general population. Most historical accounts consider the world's first institutionalized system of quarantine to be the one established in Venice during the 1348 outbreak, which killed nearly 15 million people across Europe.

Until the 18th century, when special buildings were built to sequester people exposed to harmful diseases, cities instituted quarantine measures through the use of ships anchored off shore, or on nearby islands. In New York, Roosevelt Island was first used as a quarantine station for smallpox victims during the 1800s.

In sci-fi film and fiction, quarantine sites run the gamut from space stations to remote islands to undersea satellites and beyond. With this in mind, Geoff Manaugh, founder of BLDGBLOG and formerly senior editor at Dwell, conducted a series of workshops last Fall to study the subject.

Three designs for quarantine, left to right: Map of Quarantine by David Garcia Studio; night view of Storefront with quarantine pods in place; Q City by Front Studio. Art courtesy Edible Geography.

"Although quarantine is usually thought of in terms of human or animal diseases, it is also a form of landscape preservation," writes co-producer Nicola Twilley of Edible Geography. "A plant pandemic can cause major economic damage; phylloxera, for example, wiped out thirty percent of French vineyards in the 1870s as well as millions of deaths: after Phytophthora infestans devastated the potato harvest in the 1840s, Ireland lost almost twenty-five percent of its population."

Quarantine affects the pets we keep, the programs we download, and the food we grow and import. Manaugh asks, "If we mapped the contents and locations of quarantine facilities worldwide, designed infographics to analyze the spread of invasive species, or the oral histories of the quarantined, what sorts of issues might we uncover?"

The results of these questions and more is an exhibition now on view at Storefront for Art and Architecture. It includes architectural and urban planning studies; infographics; there's even an illuminated manuscript for a fable about the politics of quarantine.

Landscapes of Quarantine is organized by Future Plural, an independent design lab launched by Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG and Nicola Twilly of Edible Geography. The exhibition continues through April 17th. Storefront for Art and Architecture. 97 Kenmare Street (just east of Lafayette Street), New York, NY. 212.431.5795.

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