Claiming Space for Small Schools (2003)

Sometimes a space for architecture is created in unexpected ways. The principals of some experimental small high schools in the Bronx, faced with the necessity of surviving inside larger schools, came up with some innovative design tactics without meaning to. This report on some spatial aspects of the New Century High School Initiative, as it unfolded at five school buildings in the Bronx, suggests that the ways in which they were struggling to create territory for themselves was fundamentally architectural. The report builds on and formalizes their ad hoc maneuvers in order to propose a unique set of strategies for the conversion of large high schools into campuses of small schools, guided by spontaneous approaches to design. (printed report funded by NYSCA).