re-ply: repurposing a moment

Join BVN architects Nikita Notowidigdo and Nick Flutter, for a show and tell about ‘re-ply’. An exhibition, a talk, and a panel conversation about re-ply’s pandemic architecture and post-covid urbanism. Plus drinks and a live art performance by Cavier Coleman.

Public Exhibition: 11-13 November, 10am – 6pm

Opening Party: Thursday 11 November, 6 – 9.30pm

Talk + Panel discussion 6.30 – 8pm

Visit re-ply.org to rsvp (attend in person or join our live stream!)

re-ply is an initiative by BVN Architecture – an Australian design firm with a New York studio, anchored in sustainability, innovation and cultural change.

After the Covid-19 pandemic and #BLM protests in June 2020, most NYC businesses barricaded their shopfronts with plywood. This material was destined for landfill once it had served its temporary purpose. With a mission to find a second use for the plywood, the BVN team started the re-ply initiative, and invented a cost-effective and recycled ‘kit-of-parts’ for outdoor dining, to help NYC’s cherished restaurants, cafés and bars to safely reopen.

Around 500 plywood sheets – many of them decorated by street artists in the hours following the protests – were saved from landfill. They have been repurposed and reused multiple times, as pop-up chairs, tables, planters, structures, now even also exhibition spaces, co-working spaces and tiny houses. We are on a mission to reunite these boards with their artists, celebrate the success of their transformation into pop-up design, and share some thinking about how creativity can keep helping the city bounce back.

Panel Discussion

• • Ochi Latjuba Vongerichten, Co-owner of Wayan restaurant and re-ply client
  • Jeffrey LeFrancois, Executive Director, Meatpacking District
  • Erik Botsford, Deputy Director, NYC Department of City Planning
  • Cavier Coleman, Multi-media Artist
  • Nikita Notowidigdo, BVN and re-ply

Moderator: Jacob Reidel, Assistant Professor in Practice, Harvard GSD (moderator)

Learn more at https://re-ply.org/.