Alina Kudaibergenova’s ad hoc bodystorm of belonging in The New School’s Kaplan Hall Lobby
Transforming a hard institutional corner into a soft sanctuary of quiet recovery. Draped sheer canopy fabrics, warm low-glare lighting, plush upcycled textiles, and personal touchpoints (house slippers, tea, and ambient media) redefine circulation benches into an intimate, low-pressure Action Setting for parallel rest and introverted belonging.
Join us for a transformative series of public events hosted by the Parsons MFA Interior Design program and the Spatial Inclusion Lab, centered on radically inclusive interiors and spatial belonging. Taking place across November 9th, 16th, and 19th with ten (10) interactive affinity events, and culminating in a public exhibition across The New School campus on December 7th, this initiative invites participants to rethink traditional interior design paradigms and explore how spaces can be shaped by inclusivity, health, and joy.
MFA Interior Design graduate students are redefining interiors as “action settings,” a framework inspired by Sarah Hendren’s What Can a Body Do?. Prioritizing spatial justice and radical access, this approach evaluates interiors not by decorative style, but by their capacity to hold and facilitate interactions of care, equity, and mutual support. Through agency, love, and respect, the studio interrogates who the built environment truly serves—challenging existing architectural barriers across intersections of gender, race, disability, neurodiversity, body shape and size, mental health, culture, age, indigeneity, spirituality, and marginalized experience.
This exhibition and series of spatial activations showcase graduate research centering diverse community perspectives. With student designers representing over 17 countries, the cohort values lived experience as a primary engine of design innovation—pushing beyond standard compliance and ADA requirements to celebrate a full spectrum of human identities, abilities, and embodiments. Join us to reimagine interiors as sanctuaries of inclusive belonging for all.
The Spatial Inclusion Lab at Parsons addresses the intersection of:
Gender, Disability, Race, Neurodiversity, Body Types & Fat Positivity, Mental Health, Spirituality, Culture & Heritage, Age, Indigeneity, Sexuality, and the Built Environment.
Click here for more details on each group’s time, location, and sign ups.
Faculty:
Julian (Camilo) Trujillo Morales
Teaching Assistants:
Omar Seda and Isac Blucher
Thank you to MFA Interior Design Director, Arianna Deane, Constructed Environments Dean Cotter Christian, Facilities, Safety and Space Planning Team: Directors Paul Gottlieb and Kelly Powell and Vice Dean of Infrastructure and Planning, Adam Parker.
Presented by MFA Interior Design at Parsons at The New School.
A quiet space for introverts to be together, without pressure.
Graduate Researchers: Elizabeth Altmannsberger, Zhiyuan Wang, and Alina Kudaibergenova
Location: E Building (25 East 13th Street), 3rd Floor Lighting Lab
Description: A calm, low-pressure sanctuary featuring pastel lighting, warm tea, soft cushions, and ambient media. It offers introverts spatial agency to read, rest, or observe without social expectations or the pressure to perform.
Core Inquiry: How can we design a shared space for introverts that builds belonging without social anxiety?
Multi-sensory gathering and decompression in transitional studio corridors.
Graduate Researchers: Sreenidhi (Chani) Nichani, Ellie Plauché, and Kanza Samrhouni
Location: E Building (25 East 13th Street), 3rd Floor Hallway (outside Donghia Gallery & E302)
Description: Transforms a high-traffic 3rd-floor studio corridor into an informal spatial sanctuary of care. Students across the School of Constructed Environments are invited to bring a favorite snack—whether tied to childhood, culture, or daily comfort. Reinterpreted through unexpected pairings and intentional plating, shared stories turn familiar foods into a collective dining experience. Guests conclude the ritual by hanging their snack packaging onto the installation, turning event waste into an evolving visual archive of community over time.
Core Inquiry: How can everyday rituals of food sharing, intentional plating, and soft corridor seating turn institutional circulation into places of spatial care and cross-disciplinary belonging?
When was the last time you connected with a stranger?
Graduate Researchers: Laura Bejot and Fernanda McCoy
Location: E Building (25 East 13th Street), 2nd Floor Sensory Recovery, Prayer and Meditation Corner
Description: A participatory installation inspired by the "tree of life" where visitors write personal reflections or stories on cards, place them on designated shelves, and pick up a stranger's letter to read in exchange.
Core Inquiry: How can an anonymous letter exchange transform a passing hallway into a place of deep human connection?
How might an institutional interior temporarily become a space for freedom, experimentation, and belonging through sound?
Graduate Researchers: Pravin Ko, Sanyu Lukwago, and Fred Miller
Location: H Building (72 5th Avenue), 3rd Floor
Description: Drawing inspiration from NYC’s underground queer techno community, this temporary installation uses reclaimed materials, dynamic lighting, and soundscapes to create a flexible space for listening, dancing, conversation, and quiet meditation.
Core Inquiry: How do anonymity, sound, and reduced lighting foster safety and freedom within academic interiors?
A gathering space where individuals can decompress, socialize, and let loose.
Graduate Researchers: Isabel Lerma, Heather Mauchan, and Shannon Rodricks
Location: H Building (72 5th Avenue), 3rd Floor (Room 301 Conference Space)
Description: An interactive sanctuary bringing together coming-home routines, shared meals/snacks, and user-selected music or karaoke. The space bridges cultural backgrounds while respecting individual sensory and decompression needs.
Core Inquiry: How can everyday routines of food and music create a domestic sense of safety and cultural connection on campus?
A welcoming space where language is never a barrier to connection.
Graduate Researchers: Micaela Mokobocki, Anna Scherbinin, and Maria Soto
Location: H Building (72 5th Avenue), 4th Floor
Description: Designed specifically for international students whose first language is not English. Provides a quiet environment for multilingual journaling, reflection, and transforming written words into handmade sheets of paper without requiring spoken translation.
Core Inquiry: How can non-verbal journaling and paper-making dissolve language barriers in university spaces?
How can the communal exchange of a pocket of food transform one of the busiest corners in New York City into a haven for connection?
Graduate Researchers: Wafa Khan, Nichole Ridgeway, and Tzuhsin (Hsin) Yang
Location: L Building (2 West 13th Street), Lobby Glass Corner (5th Ave & 13th St)
Description: Centers first-year international students in a transcultural ritual of dumpling-making and sharing, using culinary heritage as a vessel for caregiving, storytelling, and building new friendships.
Core Inquiry: How can traditional food-making transform a busy glass street-corner lobby into a warm sanctuary of home?
What happens to an idea when it passes through another person's perspective?
Graduate Researchers: Irina Davydova, Halley Miklos, and Jamie Palka
Location: Vera List Courtyard (between 66 W 12th St & 65 W 11th St)
Description: Centering busy PhD and MFA researchers, this installation invites participants to a Telestrations-inspired drawing and writing game under tulle and sheer fabric canopy between courtyard trees, hanging the resulting work as an open-air gallery.
Core Inquiry: Can playful, step-by-step drawing games help adults release academic tension and build community?
Can interrupting habitual wayfinding create a moment of reset?
Graduate Researchers: Gabby Lange, Carly Nolen, and Kala Vahle
Location: D Building (6 East 16th Street), Ground Floor Lobby
Description: A private enclosure constructed of soft fabric walls, warm light, quiet sound machines, and mirrors situated directly inside the busy Vera List lobby. It invites rushing students and faculty to take a breath, write an affirmation, and read a note left by a peer.
Core Inquiry: How can soft spatial enclosures interrupt overstimulating entrance lobbies to restore mental focus?
How traditions, memories, music, and routines travel with us wherever we go.
Graduate Researchers: Brianna Benoit and Hannah Chaffin
Location: D Building (6 East 16th Street), 7th Floor Lobby
Description: An interactive installation centering commuter and international students. Features a house-like structure made of colorful fabrics, sticky note reflection prompts about home, and a collaborative crowd-sourced global music playlist.
Core Inquiry: How can shared memories, music, and cultural routines build a collective feeling of home on campus?
Committed to amplifying diverse voices, The New School offers more than a thousand public programs and events each year, providing fresh perspectives and unique learning opportunities. These lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and performances feature prominent and emerging artists, activists, and thought leaders. Be sure to visit our Events Calendar to see the full roster.
To receive updates about public programs and events at The New School, subscribe to our mailing list. Visit our Livestream and YouTube channels to watch select events live and recorded.
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