Photos: NOT NOT Closing Talk + Fire Sale

On August 13, we bid farewell to NOT NOT, the exhibition and temporary office space created by Ekin Bilal and Celia Chaussabel. This space-within-a-space occupied the front of Van Alen’s office through the summer, where visitors could view Ekin and Celia’s past projects and engage with them as they worked in real time.

​To close out the project, we explored 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. To illustrate this, three design studio founders discussed the not-quite-architecture projects that helped establish their practices: Annie Barrett, aanda; Jaffer Kolb, New Affiliates, and Marc Tsurumaki, LTL Architects.

Attendees then claimed a piece of the exhibition for themselves with the NOT NOT fire sale. In the project’s ethos of circular economies, display items and building materials were up for grabs — and everything left over was successfully returned to their original sources by the end of the weekend.

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.