GSAPP Incubator at New INC. image © GSAPP 

The Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) inaugurates the GSAPP Incubator with its first season of members. The GSAPP Incubator is an initiative for the school’s alumni, providing a collaborative environment for exploring new ideas and developing innovative projects that encompass culture, technology and the city. The co-working space encourages discovery and an open exchange among a diverse group of participants engaging in topics and interdisciplinary methods that expand the possibilities of architecture. Directed by Assistant Professor David Benjamin, the Incubator is located at 231 Bowery along with the New Museum’s New Inc.

Kosmos arch, image via EMA Moscow / flickr 

The GSAPP Incubator blends a professional setting and culture of entrepreneurship with the communal creative energy and rigorous discourse experienced by students during their time at Columbia. A membership at the incubator eases the transition between school and practice, and allows recent graduates to share experiences and skills while building their professional network and connections to New York’s technology industry. Members also organize programs and workshops to be held both at New Inc and at Columbia’s Morningside campus to bridge the two venues and maintain dialogues among current students, faculty and alumni.

The Future of Fashion is Now. image © Forrest Jessee

The GSAPP Incubator is a unique university-led incubator spanning multiple disciplines and building on the strengths of the school and its faculty, the resources of New Inc and New Museum, and relationships to the technology industry of lower Manhattan. It encourages experimental and alternative modes of practice that encompass research and production: the eleven inaugural member groups are developing a variety of cutting-edge projects spanning virtual reality and digital technology, critical discourse and publishing, civic issues and public spaces, urban regeneration, emergency response, and more.

As of November 2015, GSAPP Incubator is hosting 30 individuals as part of the eleven inaugural member groups: A(n) Office, City and Disaster, Consortia, Family + Playlab + Pool, IrisVR, Forrest Jessee, Dimitri Kim, KOSMOS, Dimitrios Spyropoulos, Xin Wang, :. 

> via GSAPP