January 22, 2024
The Center for Architecture, a leading cultural venue for architecture, design, and urbanism in New York City, is excited to announce its exhibition schedule for 2024. This year’s premiere exhibition, Constructing Hope: Ukraine, opens on May 2 at 6:00 PM, alongside the AIANY Design Awards 2024 and Spatializing Reproductive Justice exhibitions.
“The Center for Architecture is uniquely positioned to showcase the amazing work of New York City’s architecture community,” says Jesse Lazar, Executive Director, AIA New York | Center for Architecture. “We’re excited to do so this fall with the 2024 AIANY Member Show, which also presents an opportunity to take stock of how far we have come together in the last 20 years, since the opening of the Center of Architecture at 536 LaGuardia Place.”
“At the same time as we celebrate our community’s achievements, the exhibitions to come explore significant social and political questions and the role of architecture in the pursuit of a more just world,” adds Lazar. “This mix of the celebratory and provocative is a perfect example of what AIANY and the Center for Architecture can do together. Nurtured by our members over the past 20 years, our current platform gives us the responsibility for provocation, and we’re honored to do so with exhibitions like Constructing Hope: Ukraine and Spatializing Reproductive Justice. We look forward to welcoming you in 2024 and to the many discussions that will bring us closer together throughout the year!”
Opening in 2024
(Images and additional details to be shared with the press in advance of each opening)
AIANY Design Awards
May 2–September 3, 2024
The AIANY Design Awards feature Honor, Merit, and Citation recipients in the categories of Architecture, Interiors, Projects, and Urban Design. Selected from among nearly 200 entries, the 22 winning projects this year range from temporary installations and exhibitions to large-scale urban interventions. Thirteen of the 22 winners are projects in New York State. One single winning project is outside the US in Quebec, Canada, while the remaining domestic awardees span Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
AIANY’s annual awards program is juried by an international panel of esteemed practitioners, this year comprising Sofía Aspe of Sofía Aspe Interiorismo, David Darling, FAIA, of Aidlin Darling Design, Frank Harmon, FAIA, of Frank Harmon Architect, Brian Johnsen, AIA, of Johnsen Schmaling Architects, Mark Lee of Johnston Marklee, Fuensanta Nieto of Nieto Sobejano Architectos, and Andrew Thompson, AIA, NOMAC, LEED AP BD+C, of Passaic County of New Jersey.
Graphic Designer: Pacific
Constructing Hope: Ukraine
May 2–September 3, 2024
In the face of Russia’s unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine—a war that has destroyed or existentially threatened Ukrainians’ lives, culture, natural landscape, and infrastructure—the Ukrainian resistance has used architecture to gain agency over their environment. Constructing Hope: Ukraine presents the work of over 20 participants from assorted creative disciplines who are using architectural skills, methods, and techniques to adapt to their dangerous present and uncertain future. By showcasing the clever, resourceful, and exquisite projects built during an ongoing invasion, Constructing Hope reveals architecture’s critical role in fashioning a story of creation, optimism, and solidarity—a story that runs counter to scenes of sheer destruction.
The first exhibition to present this work in the United States, Constructing Hope: Ukraine, brings together a wide range of projects—from modular furniture designs and housing for internally displaced people to detailed documentation of destroyed buildings and spatial memories. These constructs of hope, created from within a humanitarian crisis, actively help Ukrainians by fostering mutual aid and functioning as crucial support networks for entire communities. By sharing the work of these creative Ukrainian visionaries, Constructing Hope shows us how there will always be a way to build a better future.
Curators: Ashley Bigham, Betty Roytburd, Sasha Topolnytska
Graphic Designer: Aliona Solomadina
Spatializing Reproductive Justice
May 2–September 3, 2024
Spatializing Reproductive Justice is a traveling exhibition and programming series that aims to spread awareness of the inequities of reproductive care in the United States and the agency of design fields to expand access. Learning from past and present reproductive and sexual health justice movements, the project addresses the spatial, legal, and social logistics of reproductive healthcare access in the United States after the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Student research and work by design studios investigate how the intersecting and compounding factors of race, class, and gender impact an individual’s access to care, and offer speculative design proposals for facilities, systems, and networks enabling reproductive care access. Expanding beyond the studios’ work, the exhibition aims to foster a dialogue among designers, healthcare providers, advocates, and students to explore how practitioners of the built environment can respond to and support reproductive justice in the US.
The original studios associated with the exhibition were taught in Fall 2022 and include “A Feminist Ethics of Care: Reproductive Justice in post-Roe America” taught by Lori Brown, FAIA, at Syracuse University, “National Care: Abortion Access, Reproductive Justice on Federal Land” taught by Lindsay Harkema at City College New York, and “Reproductive Justice Network” taught by Bryony Roberts at Columbia University GSAPP.
Curators: Lori Brown, FAIA, Lindsay Harkema, and Bryony Roberts with FLUFFFF Studio
Graphic Designer: FLUFFFF Studio
This exhibition is organized in association with WIP Collaborative and ArchiteXX, and is supported, in part, by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
2024 AIANY Member Show
October 1, 2024–March 2025
Founded in 1857, AIA New York is the oldest and largest chapter of the American Institute of Architects with roughly 5,000 architect, allied professional, associate, emeritus, corresponding, international associate, corporate, student, and public members. AIANY is committed to positively impacting the physical and social qualities of our city, while promoting policies beneficial to the welfare of our members.
2024 AIANY Member Show celebrates the work of AIA New York, AIA Brooklyn, AIA Bronx, AIA Staten Island, and AIA Queens members in the Center for Architecture, providing a snapshot of the work being produced in our city.
The exhibition will present works of all scales and types—small, large, commercial, residential, public, private, interiors, historic preservation, engineering, landscape, urban design, un-built competition entries, theoretical projects, and design research—representing the scope and quality of work being done both at home and abroad.
Designer to be announced.
Building Connections
October 1, 2024—March 2025
Building Connections is the Center for Architecture Education Department’s annual exhibition of K-12 student work from our Learning By Design:NY in-school residencies and Teen and Youth programs held at the Center for Architecture. The exhibition highlights our design education methods and celebrates the collaboration and creativity of the students, classroom teachers, and Center for Architecture design educators who participate in these programs.
Designer to be announced.
About the Center for Architecture
The Center for Architecture is the premier cultural venue for architecture and the built environment in New York City, informed by the complexity of the City’s urban fabric and in dialogue with the global community. The Center for Architecture shares a home with the AIA New York Chapter and has the unique advantage of drawing upon the ideas and experiences of practicing architects to produce thought-provoking exhibitions, informative public programs, and quality design education experiences for K-12 students. It also leads New York City’s annual monthlong architecture and design festival, Archtober. The Center for Architecture’s aim is to further public knowledge about New York City architecture and architects, foster exchange and collaboration among members of the design, development, building, scholarly, and policy sectors, and inspire new ideas about the role of design in communities by presenting contemporary and practical issues in architecture and urbanism to a general audience. centerforarchitecture.org