Ekin Bilal

Ekin Bilal is an architectural designer and researcher whose work explores spaces and materials often pushed to the back of architectural discourse. Through speculative design and representation, he examines the regulatory and economic paper trail that shapes architecture, reimagining how overlooked systems and spaces can offer alternative modes of spatial agency. He is a cofounder of NOT NOT, a design practice operating across architecture, objects, and stories to foreground latent spatial and material conditions. Ekin previously taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds a B.Arch. from Cornell University and an SMArchS from MIT. He has practiced with New Affiliates, Bureau Spectacular, MIT Urban Risk Lab, and Collective Studio, among others. He contributed to work exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2023, 2025), Salone del Mobile Milano (2019), and the Timișoara Architecture Biennial (2025). His drawing series Goff, Revisited, produced with New Affiliates, has been collected by the Art Institute of Chicago.