n September 12, I led a small group of TC students and faculty through exercises that investigated Columbia’s Manhattanville campus, a re-design of a 17-acre area of buildings in Harlem. Touted as being “open to all” Manhattanville is intended to convey a city campus “for people.” Renzo Piano the architect for the project, echo’s these sentiments in the construction of the structures themselves. He describes wanting the architecture to express “openness, good citizenship, and a welcoming attitude toward the community" (Davison, 2018). 

The workshop titled “the power of constructed places” asks participants to complicate these notions through observing the buildings and their architectural features to exploring the impact and intention of its construction.
 
Through various sensory prompts and mapping exercises, participants made observations of the buildings, its features, and the surrounding area. They were encouraged to record their reflections in a padlet or on a map that was provided to them. We then came back together as a group and jotted down our thoughts in sidewalk chalk on the street.

The conversations were rich and layered from discussions of surveillance to ideas of representation. We also reflected on how we might expand on the ideas curricular.
 
As a curriculum designer. I am fascinated with posing curricular questions that investigate our spatial environments—space and place. What do the features of certain buildings tell us about inclusion and exclusion? What is coded in a building’s choice of color? What makes a place feel inviting? Taken with imagination and attention, the feelings and thoughts we have about our surrounding environments tell us so much information about ourselves, our histories, and society. One participant describes it perfectly when she said: 
“The cycle of acquire (land), design (a new thing), demolish (what is there already), construct (the new thing) Is compelling to me as a way to think and learn about the spaces/places we currently occupy. One idea is to create a curriculum or similar guided activity for members of the community or nearby schools where we engaged with prompts similar to the ones Raquel created for us today.  Use the engagement and being in this space as a way to reflect on its histor(ies)”.
In this way, much of what we deem relevant topics of study become transfigured and we emerge on the other side more aware. 

Raquel Vigil, M.A. in Curriculum and Teaching
Teachers College, Columbia University