Archive

  1. What Language Leaves Behind: Integrating Graphics and Architecture

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    What Language Leaves Behind: Integrating Graphics and Architecture
    Thursday, February 19, 5:30–8 pm
    303 Bond Street, Brooklyn

     

    Join us for an evening of conversation and discourse on interdisciplinary design practice with Studio Loutsis, REX, and Snøhetta.

     

    Moderated by journalist Diana Budds, panelists will discuss how shared values around community, integration, and cross-disciplinary partnership are central to their successful collaborative projects.

     

    ​This event is curated by the Van Alen Vanguard, a dynamic network of emerging design leaders. Diana Budds and Taylor Loutsis are among the inaugural cohort developing public programs and exhibitions that reimagine designers’ roles in civic life and center equity, resilience, and local knowledge.

    Event schedule

    5:30 pm: Doors open
    6 pm: Presentation
    6:45 pm: Q&A moderated by Diana Budds
    7:15 pm: Cocktail reception

    Speakers

    Network
    Vanguard

    Diana Budds

    Journalist

    Network

    Craig Dykers

    Founding Partner, Snøhetta

    Network
    Vanguard

    Taylor Loutsis

    Creative Director and Founder, Studio Loutsis

    Network

    Joshua Ramus

    Founding Principal, REX

    RSVP
    Ongoing

    Van Alen Vanguard

    A cohort of rising professionals reimagining cities, public space, and designers’ roles in civic life.
    See Project
    Ongoing

    Urban Room

    Using our HQ to host public programs and as a flexible community space.
    See Project

  2. Dione Lee

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    Dione Lee is a Singaporean designer and artist based in New York City. She designs experiences with the team at HUSH, where her work focuses on translating brands and stories into holistic environments, interfaces, and interactions. She has worked across commercial and cross-disciplinary projects spanning print, digital, and experiential media. Her practice is rooted in an interest in behavioral psychology and computer-mediated systems, using data, interaction design, and spatial storytelling to shape how people move, feel, and make decisions within designed environments.

  3. Benjamin Meade

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    Benjamin Meade is a Senior Design Director at Alloy Development, an architecture and development firm located in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Meade challenges the architecture and real estate disciplines by questioning existing practices and proposing new ways to benefit the social and built environment. Benjamin has been a part of the team since 2012, leading the design effort in the architectural, visual, and marketing departments.

  4. Charlotte Wessell

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    Charlotte Wessell is a strategic advancement, governance, and communications professional with extensive experience supporting mission-driven organizations and academic institutions. She is currently the Director of Development at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), where she leads advancement efforts in support of the school’s academic mission and strategic priorities.

    Previously, she spent nearly a decade at The Cooper Union, finishing her time as the Director of the Office of the President and Board Relations, where she managed the operations and strategic priorities for the President’s Office, Cabinet, and governing Board. Charlotte holds a master’s degree in Public History and worked in historic preservation advocacy prior to her career in higher education. She serves as the President of the Cobble Hill Playschool Board of Directors and lives in Carroll Gardens with her family.

  5. Celia Chaussabel

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    Celia Chaussabel is an architect and educator currently based in Buffalo, New York, where she is the Reyner Banham Teaching Fellow at University at Buffalo. Her creative practice is focused on how narratives and aesthetics shape cultural perceptions of construction waste. Celia’s work speculates on what it would mean for the architectural profession to consider the sourcing, maintenance, and re-circulation of materials as critical design work. She designs architecture, furniture, exhibitions, video games, animations, and other mediums that bring awareness of the life cycles of the materials that make up the built environment.

    Celia is also co-founder of NOT NOT, a design practice exploring overlooked dimensions of architecture as sites for political and creative inquiry. NOT NOT projects often begin with constraints such as construction debris, material temporality, maintenance, and zoning loopholes to investigate cultural aesthetics and potential. NOT NOT’s design work has been exhibited internationally, including the Venice Biennale, Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, the Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology, Salone del Mobile in Milan, and Princeton School of Architecture.

    Celia previously worked at Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis as a designer and researcher on the Manual of Biogenic House Sections (ORO Editions, 2022) and at Bellastock in Paris and Rotor in Brussels on research around material reuse. She holds a graduate degree from MIT (SMArchS 2025) and is a graduate of California Polytechnic State University (B.Arch 2019). She has previously taught at MIT and Tecnologico de Monterrey.

  6. Ekin Bilal

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    Ekin Bilal is a researcher and designer based in New York City. His work investigates how maintenance, material circulation, and back-of-house infrastructures shape the life of buildings and cities. Through architectural design and experimental representation, he explores the political and creative potential of overlooked systems—zoning loopholes, informal repairs, deconstruction practices, and the everyday labor that sustains the built environment. Prior to teaching, Ekin worked with public library systems on community-driven planning efforts and has held worked with MIT’s Urban Risk Lab, Bureau Spectacular, and New Affiliates amongst others. He holds an SMArchS from MIT (2024) and a B.Arch from Cornell University (2020).

  7. Taylor Loutsis

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    Taylor Loutsis is the creative director and founder of Studio Loutsis and the art director of AN Interior. With over a decade of experience at the intersection of branding, image-making, and the built environment, he brings together extraordinary creative talent and leads interdisciplinary teams that reimagine how visuals, spaces, and stories come to life.

    His work with leading studios, including 2×4 and Pentagram, combined with global experience spanning Germany, New York, Singapore, and San Francisco gives him a broad perspective on design’s role in shaping human experience. Taylor has partnered with clients such as Apple, Arc’teryx, REX, Prada, Brown University, National Sawdust, and Snøhetta, always striving to create work with clarity and impact. He has also led initiatives with the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD), advancing how signage, exhibition, and environmental design engage public life.

    Taylor holds a BSD in Graphic Design from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, teaches at Parsons, and serves as a visiting critic at SVA, Parsons, Pratt, and Rutgers.

  8. Pamela Cabrera

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    Pamela Cabrera is a Peruvian-American architect, climate engineer, aspiring artist, and senior associate at Transsolar KlimaEngineering. Her work centers on designing new-material assemblies for climate-driven environmental design of spaces and landscapes. Her work is grounded in creative thinking and an interdisciplinary approach between art and science.

    Cabrera holds a Master of Design Studies in Energy and Environment from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from The Cooper Union, where she is also a member of the adjunct faculty. Her work has been published in Building and Environment, Bloomberg Magazine, Building Simulation, and Advances in Architectural Geometry, among others.

  9. Clara Syme

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    Clara Syme is a founding member of A83’s nonprofit board. She is an architect based in NYC where she co-directs a83 and the design firm Chibbernoonie. Since operating a83 she has curated over 10 exhibitions, organized events and educational workshops, contributed to the production of fine-art print editions, and is director of archival material at a83. Syme received her Bachelor of Architectural Studies from University of Waterloo and her Masters in Architecture from Princeton University. Syme has taught design studios at University of Waterloo School of Architecture and Parsons School of Design. Prior to joining Chibbernoonie she has worked for the firms LAMAS, BAS, LGA, Powerhouse Company, LSS, and 3rd Uncle Design.

  10. Jerome Haferd

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    Jerome W Haferd is a licensed architect, public artist, and educator based in Harlem, NYC. He is principal of the award winning JEROME HAFERD Studio. Haferd is assistant professor of architecture at City College’s Spitzer School of Architecture where he co-directs the new Place, Memory, and Culture Incubator. He is a 2025 United States Artist Fellow. Haferd serves on the Board of Directors of The Architectural League of New York.

    Jerome Haferd Studio, D.P.C. critically engages built environment projects at the intersection of preservation and design, often looking to marginalized histories to unlock a new imaginary for architecture, art, and cultural infrastructure. Haferd and his team’s work on complex sites includes collaborations with the Harlem African Burial Ground, NYCHA, The Park Avenue Armory, and the National Black Theatre. Haferd was lead architect and designer for the 2023-24 Culture, Creativity, and Care Initiative with the Mellon Foundation and Harlem Grown. The studio is a first prize recipient for the International Africatown Design Competition and is working on a permanent public artwork and plaza for the East River Esplanade. Jerome Haferd Studio exhibited in the U.S. Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale. JHS has been commissioned alongside AYON Studio to reimagine the historic Amsterdam News Headquarters in Harlem.