Brooklyn NY
USA
An architectural office that begins as an exhibition, an architectural exhibition that reveals the making of an office.
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 will use 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 will be on view at 303 Bond Street, Brooklyn, from June 18 to August 15, 2026. An opening reception will take place on Thursday, June 18, 6:30–9pm (RSVP).
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 will present 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.
Location
Van Alen Institute, 303 Bond Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Hours
NOT NOT is on view during Van Alen Institute’s opening hours: Monday–Thursday, 10am–6pm. 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.
