NOT NOT: Closing Talk + Fire Sale

​Thursday, August 13, 6–8 pm
303 Bond Street, Brooklyn

​Join us for a closing talk (and exhibition fire sale!) celebrating NOT NOT: An Office, An Exhibition. This summer, Van Alen has transformed into an exhibition and temporary office space of the newly-launched design studio NOT NOT. For this witty, experimental project, they created a space-within-a-space largely using off-the-shelf materials.

​To close out the exhibition, NOT NOT founders Ekin Bilal and Celia Chaussabel explore this notion: Architecture practices rarely start with a building. They often start with something smaller and scrappier: a piece of furniture, a feasibility study, a grant, a drawing set, or some oddly specific problem someone was willing to pay for. These projects may not typically be considered “architecture,” but they’re also not not architecture.

Hear from founding principals of three firms about their first “not not” commission: a paid project that sat at the edges of architecture, but somehow became part of their practice. Speakers include:

• ​Annie Barrett, Founding Principal, aanda
• ​Jaffer Kolb, Co-Founder and Principal, New Affiliates
• ​Marc Tsurumaki, Principal, LTL

​Following the talk, enjoy refreshments and join in on the NOT NOT fire sale. In the exhibition’s ethos of sustainability and circular economies, select display items and building materials will be for sale. Take home a zine, print, hand clamp, or building supplies. After the close of the exhibition, all remaining building materials will be returned to their original sources.

This event is presented by the Van Alen Vanguard, a dynamic network of emerging design leaders. Ekin Bilal and Celia Chaussabel are among the inaugural cohort developing public programs and exhibitions that reimagine designers’ roles in civic life and center equity, resilience, and local knowledge.