The "Spatializing Reproductive Justice" exhibition, at the Center for Architecture from May 2 to Sept. 3, features Spitzer School of Architecture student-designed work and is co-curated by Professor Lindsay Harkema.
The work of students at The City College of New York’s Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture comprises part of a traveling exhibition co-curated by Professor Lindsay Harkema entitled “Spatializing Reproductive Justice” from May 2, 2024 - September 3, 2024. The traveling exhibition explores the spatial, legal, and social logistics of reproductive healthcare access in the U.S. after Roe v. Wade opens at the AIA New York Center for Architecture. Expanding the discourse across institutions, the exhibition will travel to safe and restrictive states, fostering dialogue between designers, students, experts, and advocates, and gathering more research and design work as it travels.
Building on the work of the SSA Fall 2022 advanced design studio entitled “National Care: Abortion Access, Reproductive Justice on Federal Land” taught by Harkema, an adjunct associate professor, the exhibition is the result of an inter-institutional collaboration with similar studios taught at Syracuse University and Columbia GSAPP, with coordination support from FLUFFFF studio. The work was featured in “The Architect’s Newspaper.”
The exhibition presents research and analysis of reproductive healthcare networks and their histories as well as architectural strategies for countering threats to bodily autonomy.
The work of students Valeska Abarca, Abbas Ali, Arifa Ali, Nathaly Castillo, Samantha Ehrman, Gabriela Gonjon, Mauricio Guidos, Guadalupe Hernandez-Sosa, Kedishia Joseph, Anamaria Jovel, Joseph Lo, Labiba Nazrul, Katherine Quito, and Leora Santoriello are included in the exhibition.
Ahead of the opening of the exhibit, CCNY students and representatives from each institution participated in a panel discussion about the inequities of reproductive care in the U.S. and the agency of the design fields to expand access at Syracuse University School of Architecture on March 19. Spitzer School of Architecture students Abarca and Castillo spoke at the panel.
Students investigated the changing landscape of reproductive healthcare access across the US since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The studios produced a robust body of research and design work that utilizes the tools of architecture to convey the spatial realities and logistical complexity created by state laws that have severely restricted care access and respond through design proposals for future architectures of care and social justice. Some of the considerations they explored included the possibility of reproductive healthcare access on federally owned lands that are not subject to local state laws. Looking beyond the design of clinics, students’ architectural proposals explored themes of care, site, affect, malleability, and programmatic hybridization. The studio’s work and the forthcoming exhibition aim to make visible social justice issues that are often private, unseen, and under-acknowledged within the architectural discipline.
In addition to Harkema, exhibition co-curators are Lori Brown (Syracuse University), Bryony Roberts (Columbia GSAPP), and Sadie Imae and Natalya Dikhanov of FLUFFFF Studio. The exhibit received a 2023 Graham Foundation Grant. The organization is also sponsored by ArchiteXX and WIP Collaborative, of which Harkema is a Founder and Co-founding member.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi (now Lightcast) puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Thea Klapwald
e:
tklapwald@ccny.cuny.edu