• Reporting Back from Van Alen's Spring 2014 Events
• Van Alen Convenes International Council of Design Leaders in Venice
• Video: Introducing Changing Course
• HUD Allocates Funding to Rebuild by Design Winners
• MOBIUS Fellow Martti Kalliala to Collaborate with Van Alen Institute
• Members Event: See and Touch the Latest Textures at Material ConneXion
• Celebrating 120 Years at Our Inaugural Spring Party
• NYSCA Independent Project Grants Available through Van Alen
• In the Field: Opportunities for Architects and Designers

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Thanks to all who joined us for Van Alen’s Spring 2014 Events last month! Continuing our exploration of Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape, we got hands-on with power tools to consider how citizens can participate in reimagining public spaces, donned the latest in wearable tech to track how our minds and bodies respond to the city, explored the psychology of mindfulness through walking tours in Manhattan, and much more.

It’s been an energetic season, and we look forward to continuing Elsewhere with new design competitions launching soon, and more public programs in the fall.

Couldn’t make it to all our events? We're continuing the conversations through a series of reports on our website, with more to come. Visit the Elsewhere site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as we post photos, videos, and articles from our Spring 2014 Events:

Early Neurological Measurements of the Urban Experience

By Mercedes Kraus

Recently, Van Alen Institute and Columbia GSAPP’s Cloud Lab hosted a tech demo and dialogue that asked, “How Does the Brain Respond to the City?” That the event was posed as a question was suggestive of its initial answer: We’re only just beginning to understand. Read more→

Escape from the “Land of No”

By Anne Guiney

Drenching rains may have forced Saturday’s Emerging Public Spaces building workshop indoors, but it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the 60 or so participants who had come prepared to build furniture for a temporary public gathering space amidst the bustle and energy of Albee Square in Downtown Brooklyn. Read more→

Launching the Institute’s Spring Season with The Imprint of the City

By Anne Guiney

Like mockingbirds that model their song on the sound of the car alarms going off nearby, we city dwellers reflect and are shaped by our environments, often in ways we’re not aware of. This dynamic back-and-forth between cities and their residents was the focus of The Imprint of the City, the… Read more→

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Last week, Van Alen Institute was thrilled to gather with its new International Council of architects, planners, and designers for the Council’s inaugural meeting in Venice, Italy during the preview of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition at la Biennale di Venezia.

Launching with a core group of 13 firms—representing practices across more than 17 cities and ten countries—this network of accomplished design practitioners will meet twice annually to identify and investigate issues facing cities internationally, and to guide the impact of the Institute’s public programming, research, and design competitions. Fall meetings will take place in New York City and spring meetings will be held in cities around the world.

Kai-Uwe Bergmann, partner and head of business development at international architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and a Van Alen trustee, will lead the International Council as chair and oversee its expansion as an international network.

“The International Council is a great platform to generate conversation around key urban questions with a truly global perspective, and I’m glad to see Van Alen bringing together expertise at this scale,” said Bergmann. “I’m pleased to have the opportunity to push it forward as Council Chair." Read the full announcement→

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Changing Course is a design competition to reimagine a more sustainable Lower Mississippi River Delta. The initiative is bringing together teams from around the world to create innovative visions and solutions for one of America’s greatest natural resources. Van Alen is proud to be working with Environmental Defense Fund to support this competition, along with technical advisors from Happold Consulting.

Changing Course has just released a great video that explains the crucial ecological, economic, and social role of the Lower Mississippi Delta, and introduces this bold new effort to address the rapid land loss in the Delta while continuing to meet the needs of navigation, flood protection, and coastal industries and communities. Learn more by watching the video above and at http://changingcourse.us/.

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On June 2, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the six proposals that have been selected as winners of the Rebuild by Design competition. HUD will allocate approximately $920 million to New York, New Jersey, and New York City to implement the following projects that will make the region more environmentally and economically resilient:

• The BIG Team: The BIG U (East River Park) - Manhattan
• The Interboro Team: Living with the Bay (Slow Streams) - Nassau County, Long Island
• MIT CAU+ZUS+URBANISTEN: New Meadowlands - Little Ferry, Moonachie, Carlstadt, Teterboro
• OMA: Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge - Hoboken, Weehawken, Jersey City
• PennDesign/OLIN: Hunts Point Lifelines - Hunts Point, South Bronx
• SCAPE/Landscape Architecture: Living Breakwaters - Tottenville, Staten Island

Van Alen Institute collaborated with New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge, Municipal Art Society, and Regional Plan Association to support the effort initiated by HUD and President Obama's Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. Working with our partners and communities throughout the region, Van Alen staff provided support to three of the winning design teams; produced five public programs designed to engage the broadest possible audience in the design ideas emerging from the competition; created a series of videos describing the Rebuild by Design process; and helped produce ongoing exhibits of competition design work. Visit the Rebuild by Design website to learn more about the winning and finalist proposals.

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Van Alen Institute is pleased to announce that architect Martti Kalliala will spend two months working with the Institute as part of MOBIUS fellowship program in fall 2014.

The MOBIUS fellowship is a three-year pilot program organized by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and the Finnish Institute in London. The program enables transatlantic mobility and collaborative practices between independent and institutional operators, aiming to support long-lasting professional relationships in the fields of visual arts, museums, and archives.

Kalliala’s work focuses on the identification and conceptualization of emerging spatial conditions. He will collaborate with Van Alen to develop a public program as part of the Institute’s Fall 2014 Events, which will continue Van Alen’s multi-year initiative Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape. Learn more about Martti Kalliala and the MOBIUS fellowship, and click here for the full announcement.

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On Thursday, June 26, Van Alen members are invited on a private tour of Material ConneXion, the world’s largest resource for innovative and advanced materials. With a library of more than 7,500 materials and processes, Material ConneXion bridges the gap between science and design to serve fields from architecture and fashion to the aerospace and automotive industries.

Material ConneXion helped HWKN's architects find the perfect water-impervious composite polyurethane for a pop-up green roofdeck overlooking the Hudson River and led Nike to the flexible monofilament sleeving that hugs the wearer's foot on the limited edition laceless Nike Jordan™.

See and touch their collection of revolutionary materials, normally restricted to their subscriber community of Fortune 500 companies, universities, design firms, and government agencies.

Join the Van Alen team and fellow members on the tour, which will take place at Material ConneXion’s New York space at the new Sandow Global Headquarters in the Time-Life Building. Light refreshments will be served.

Space is limited, so please reserve your spot as soon as possible at rsvp@vanalen.org. Not yet a member? Join now to attend this event→

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On May 21, we celebrated 120 years of Van Alen Institute at our first Spring Party, held at The High Line Hotel. We enjoyed an amazing concert from White Prism and music from DJ Maria Chavez, making for a festive night that drew nearly 500 friends of Van Alen to the sold-out event. View the party photos on Facebook.

And this year, we were proud to introduce what T: The New York Times Style Magazine named “Possibly the Coolest Art and Design Auction Ever,” 30 amazing design experiences around the world hosted by online auction platform Paddle8.

We want to thank all our generous supporters that make our work at Van Alen Institute possible, and we look forward to continuing this new tradition with you in 2015.

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Van Alen Institute is pleased to offer an opportunity for architecture, design, and historic preservation professionals to apply for fiscal sponsorship for New York State Council on the Arts Independent Project grants.

NYSCA's 2015 program in Architecture + Design makes grants of up to $10,000 available for individuals (or a team) to creatively explore, or to research an issue or problem in the fields of architecture, design and/or historic preservation that advances the field and contributes to the public’s understanding of design. The category seeks projects that are innovative in nature and emphasize artistry and design excellence. Projects may lead to the creation of design prototypes, explore new technology which impacts design, research a topic in design or architectural history, or engage in critical or theoretical analyses.

The deadline to apply through Van Alen is June 16, 2014. Read the full announcement for more information and details on how to submit your application.

For further information about this funding opportunity and application instructions, see NYSCA’s Architecture + Design Program's guidelines for the Independent Projects Category at www.arts.ny.gov.

Image: 2013 Independent Project, Animal Territories by Denise Hoffman-Brandt and Catherine Seavitt (Photo by Ran Xia)

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The annual d3 Natural Systems Competition, established in 2009, invites architects, designers, engineers, and students to collectively explore the potential of analyzing, documenting, and deploying nature-based influences in architecture, urbanism, interiors, and designed objects. Register by July 15.

The Urban Urge Awards honor the legacy of architect, educator, community advocate and urban designer Mojdeh Baratloo through small project grants to support interdisciplinary urban projects. Offering 12 grants of up to $4,000, the competition encourages programmatic or physical interventions such as urban artwork, performance, and installation. Students, recent graduates, and professionals are all encouraged to apply.

The Museum of Science Fiction (MoSF) seeks to build a preview museum to promote and generate interest in a future science fiction museum in Washington, D.C. The MoSF architectural design competition invites proposals for a 3,000-4,000 SF temporary building to accommodate exhibits and special programs. Register by July 25.

Beijing Cityvision is the 6th annual competition launched by Cityvision, inviting participants to imagine the future of Beijing and its inhabitants through the theme of Evolution. Who will inhabit this Supercity and how will the evolution of its future inhabitants take place? Submit by July 2.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is seeking a visionary design for a proposed Guggenheim museum in the Finnish capital of Helsinki through their first open, international architectural competition. The Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition seeks registrations and Stage One design submissions by September 10.

Support Proyecto Helicoide, a nonprofit organization based in Caracas, Venezuela, that seeks to study El Helicoide: a concrete building constructed in 1960 as a drive-in mall, which was halted before completion and abandoned to take on many new lives and legends in the slums of south-central Caracas. Proyecto Helicoide seeks funding to preserve this structure as an invaluable part of the urban memory and imaginary of Caracas through archival research, community workshops, exhibitions, and publications.

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Since its founding in 1894, Van Alen Institute has promoted innovative thinking about the role of architecture and design in civic life. Today the Institute’s competitions, research, and public programs shape the public conversation and bring design excellence to the built environment of cities and sites around the world. Learn more at www.vanalen.org.

Our ongoing programs are made possible through the generous assistance of our individual contributors and partners, and are supported, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Van Alen Institute | 30 W. 22nd St., 4th Floor | New York, NY 10010 | 212–924–7000 | www.vanalen.org