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June 18, 2026 — Brooklyn, NY — Van Alen Institute is pleased to present NOT NOT, an exhibition and temporary office space of the newly-launched design studio NOT NOT, founded by Ekin Bilal and Celia Chaussabel. Bilal and Chaussabel have used off-the-shelf materials, held together with custom hand-like clamps, to construct an office and exhibition in Van Alen Institute’s Urban Room, which serves as a site for simultaneous display and production. NOT NOT is on view at 303 Bond Street, Brooklyn, from June 18 to August 15, 2026. An opening reception takes place on Thursday, June 18, 6:30–9 pm.
The office
This is NOT NOT’s first physical work space as an emerging design practice, and is, in part, a response to the real estate costs and material realities of launching a new office. The office is constructed of standard building materials, such as sheets of plywood, cinder blocks, and metal sheets. The custom hand-like clamps hold all other materials in place without damaging them. At the end of the exhibition, NOT NOT will disassemble the office and return all of its pieces to where they came from, allowing others to use them and reducing the waste normally associated with architecture exhibitions.
The office can be viewed from the street and visitors are invited to enter the space, interact with Bilal and Chaussabel, and observe the product and process of NOT NOT’s work up close.
The exhibition
On the office’s exterior walls, NOT NOT presents a mix of the studio’s recent work alongside new designs, commissions, and proposals. Side-by-side with architectural drawings and models, the exhibition includes animations, video games, comics, furniture, and printed matter that expand how architecture can be made and shared.
The exhibition makes often-hidden aspects of architecture visible — physical spaces as well as the profession’s ongoing grappling with climate crises and labor practices. NOT NOT offers an alternative future and way of thinking about overlooked spaces, resources, and the built environment, centered on care and transparency.
Public programs
Thursday, July 23
Panel discussion; details TBA
Thursday, August 13
Workshop; details TBA
Visit vanalen.org for additional program information.
“Building on 130 years of platforming emerging designers, Van Alen Institute is thrilled to be a launching pad for NOT NOT,” said Hayley Eber, Executive Director, Van Alen Institute. “This witty, unusual exhibition is an unprecedented chance for the public to witness the design process in real time and glimpse into the complexities of starting a new practice.”
“This exhibition is about becoming: becoming architects, collaborators, friends, and an office, while expanding what architectural practice can be,” said Ekin Bilal, co-founder, NOT NOT. “For us, NOT NOT is a way to ask how we might address the many crises our profession is facing, while still finding joy in the midst of them: walking through architecture’s back doors, dumpster hunting for building materials, and, occasionally, taking advantage of a very generous return policy.”
“We first bonded over a shared love of representing architecture through comics, animations, and video games,” said Celia Chaussabel, co-founder, NOT NOT. “When we explored why we feel that way, we realized at the core was a shared excitement for the margins of the discipline, both physically and methodologically: the forms of architectural making that allow more people to enter the conversation. It is a way to open urgent questions about labor, extraction, and repair to audiences beyond architecture.”
Location
303 Bond Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Hours
NOT NOT is on view during Van Alen Institute’s opening hours:
Monday–Thursday, 10 am–6 pm
Select Friday–Saturday hours:
June 19/20, July 24/25, August 14/15; 1–5pm
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 is the first exhibition presented as part of the Van Alen Vanguard.
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.
About NOT NOT
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.
About Van Alen Institute
Van Alen Institute is a driving force behind community-led urban design, which believes that local knowledge and care enrich the design process. Since 1894, Van Alen has invested in people with a passion for improving cities through the power of architecture and design. Our public space projects build unconventional coalitions of designers, local stakeholders, and city leaders, and we support their visions through project scoping, hands-on guidance, and seed funding. From our home in New York City, our work confronts longstanding power imbalances in citymaking, showcases the vanguard of community-led design, and supports the next generation of designers in creating more just cities.
See all work at vanalen.org.
Media Contacts
Alisha Kim Levin, press@vanalen.org
Elisa Smilovitz, elisa@elisasmilovitz.com
