Five exhibitions

The Center for Architecture, a leading cultural venue for architecture, design, and urbanism in New York City, is looking forward to five provocative exhibitions opening in 2024. This year’s premiere exhibition, Constructing Hope: Ukraine, opens May 2 at 6pm (register here), alongside the AIANY Design Awards 2024 and Spatializing Reproductive Justice exhibitions. Keep reading below to learn more about them!

“The Center for Architecture is uniquely positioned to showcase the amazing work of New York City’s architecture community,” says Jesse Lazar, Assoc. AIA, Executive Director, AIA New York | Center for Architecture. “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.”
 

AIANY Design Awards  2024 (May 2–September 3, 2024)
AIANY Design Awards 2024 features 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.  
 

Constructing Hope: Ukraine (May 2–September 3, 2024) 
Constructing Hope: Ukraine presents the work of over a dozen participants currently applying architectural thinking to support Ukraine’s short- and long-term reconstruction efforts. In the face of Russia’s unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine—a war that has destroyed and existentially threatened Ukrainians’ lives, ecology, culture, and infrastructure—these multidisciplinary creatives regain agency over their environment by employing architectural strategies and practices as a form of resistance. Showcasing their work and ideas, Constructing Hope: Ukraine reveals the power of collaboration, horizontal organizing, and knowledge exchange, illuminating architecture’s critical role in building a collective resistance that can generate hope for imperiled communities in Ukraine and beyond.

The first exhibition of this work in the United States, Constructing Hope: Ukraine focuses on decentralized reconstruction efforts, presenting the work of grassroots initiatives happening inside and outside of Ukraine. The exhibition brings together a wide range of projects—from modular furniture designs and housing for internally displaced individuals to detailed documentation of destroyed buildings and spatial memories—to illustrate how architecture can foster mutual aid and facilitate crucial support networks for entire communities. Constructing Hope: Ukraine presents these resourceful initiatives to demonstrate how, even during wartime destruction, these actions provide the hope necessary to move forward. Curated by Ashley Bigham, Betty Roytburd, and Sasha Topolnytska.
 

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 investigates 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. Curated by Lori Brown, FAIA, Lindsay Harkema, and Bryony Roberts with FLUFFFF Studio.
 

What We Build (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.  

What we Build features 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.   
 

Why Design? (October 1, 2024—March 2025 )
Why Design? 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.