Building Justice Studio in Architecture and Urban Planning

at Rikers Island Correctional Facility with the Center for Justice at Columbia University (2016 - 2018)
Until further notice: This course is on hold due to changes in DOC policy.

A collaboration with the Justice-In-Education Initiative at Columbia University's Center for Justice, the Building Justice Studio brings the architecture studio to Rikers Island Correctional Facility where Columbia and Rikers students explore the foundations of architecture, design, and urban planning. Students work together to design, create, and re-imagine what a neighborhood can be culminating in a presentation of their work.

Over four weeks, students plan a neighborhood—from uses and activities it will (and won't) include to making zoning decisions about adjacencies and proximity—and construct scale building models individually and in small groups. The curriculum draws on project-based learning and community-based planning techniques to develop dialogues, creative confidence, design agency, and joint explorations on the relationships between where we come from and the opportunities afforded us.

Columbia students also design and prepare a model-making "kit of parts"—a versatile, laser-cut collection of building materials to enable the construction of the model neighborhood given the constraints of corrections-classroom.