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NOT NOT: An Office, An Exhibition

On view June 18–August 15, 2026.

NOT NOT was an exhibition and temporary office space of the newly-launched design studio NOT NOT, founded by Ekin Bilal and Celia Chaussabel. For this witty, experimental project, they created a space-within-a-space using off-the-shelf materials and custom clamps.

Ekin Bilal and Celia Chaussabel are members of the Van Alen Vanguard, a network of 21 emerging design leaders. Activating Van Alen’s space at 303 Bond Street, the Vanguard develops public programs and exhibitions that reimagine designers’ roles in civic life. NOT NOT was the first exhibition presented as part of the Van Alen Vanguard.

The office

As NOT NOT’s first physical work space, this project was, in part, a response to the financial and material realities of launching a new office. The office space was constructed of standard building materials, including plywood, cinder blocks, and metal sheeting. Custom hand-like clamps hold these materials in place without damaging them, so they could be returned to where they came from — allowing others to use them and reducing waste.

Visitors were invited to enter the space, interact with Ekin and Celia, and observe their design process up close.

The exhibition

On the office’s exterior walls, NOT NOT presented a mix of the studio’s recent work alongside new designs, commissions, and proposals. Side-by-side with architectural drawings and models, the exhibition included animations, video games, comics, furniture, and printed matter that expand how architecture can be made and shared.

The exhibition made often-hidden aspects of architecture visible — physical spaces as well as the profession’s ongoing grappling with climate crises and labor practices. NOT NOT offered an alternative future and way of thinking about overlooked spaces, resources, and the built environment, centered on care and transparency.

NOT NOT is a design practice working across architecture, objects, and stories. The practice explores the overlooked spaces, materials, and systems that shape the built environment, from maintenance routines and demolition debris to regulatory gray zones and infrastructures that sustain buildings over time.

NOT NOT’s output extends beyond conventional architectural formats (not not architectural formats), including video games, experimental animation, comics, machines, and illustrations. NOT NOT chooses these mediums deliberately to surface the political and material realities often hidden within architectural practice: questions of labor, regulation, maintenance, extraction, and care, in order to make them legible to audiences beyond the profession. Learn more at not-not.co.

NOT NOT is supported by Independent Projects, a grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts and The Architectural League of New York. Independent Projects is made possible by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.