Spatializing Reproductive Justice

Spatializing Reproductive Justice is a traveling exhibition and programming series that aims to spread awareness of the inequities of reproductive care in the US and of the agency of design fields to expand access. The project originated from parallel architecture studios taught in Fall 2022 by Lori A. Brown at Syracuse University, Lindsay Harkema at City College New York, and Bryony Roberts at Columbia University GSAPP. Learning from past and present reproductive and sexual health justice movements, the project addresses the spatial, legal, and social logistics of reproductive healthcare access in the US after the 2022 repeal of Roe v. Wade.

Installed at Columbia GSAPP from March 29 - April 16, 2024, the exhibition features the student research and design work investigating how the intersecting and compounding factors of race, class, and gender impact an individual’s access to care, and offer speculative design proposals for facilities, systems, and networks enabling reproductive care access. Expanding beyond the studios’ work, the exhibition aims to foster a dialogue among designers, health care providers, advocates, and students to explore how practitioners of the built environment can respond to and support reproductive justice in the US.