Exhibition
November 24, 2025 to January 9, 2026 at the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, and Access to the Feminist and Queer Archives room L105

Symposium
Nov 24, 2025 5:00 PM Kellen Auditorium, Room 101. The symposium will begin at 5:00 pm will be in Kellen Auditorium. The reception to follow at 6:30 pm will be in the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery.

Accessible entrance on 66 Fifth Ave

The School of Constructed Environments is proud to present an exhibition and symposium that serve as platforms for pedagogical experiments and an open conversation around two second wave feminist design archives: New York–based architect Susana Torre and London’s Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative. Torre, former Chair of Architecture and Environmental Design at Parsons, helped shape SCE’s progressive curriculum and advanced feminist architectural discourse through her essay Space as Matrix. Matrix Co-operative challenged the class structure in the building profession, empowering women and marginalized groups through collaborative design and hands-on training.

Curated by Professor Brian McGrath with faculty collaborators and exhibition designers Michele Gorman, Christine Facella, and Sugandha Gupta, the project merges archive and studio. Students across architecture, interiors, industrial design, and textiles will reimagine feminist design legacies through tactile, interactive installations. The exhibition functions as both archive and workshop, fostering open conversations around equity, justice, and the future of design.

Thank you to our Anonymous Feminist donor in addition to Curators Jos Boys from Matrix and Jon Astbury at the Barbican Centre, Gerladine Teddler at ETH, Independent Curator Marina Urbach, Jade Snelling IAWA, Matrix Open Feminist Architecture Archive, the New York Public Library Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, Lucille Tenazas, Wendy Schier, Christina Moon and Parsons Cross School and SCE School Based Funds.

Parsons School of Constructed Environments (Architecture, Interior Design, Industrial Design), Fashion (Textiles), School of Design Strategies, Design and Technology students fabricated the exhibition through workshops and contributed to the exhibition through original pieces that reflect on the work of Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative and Susana Torre.

Research Assistants:

Khadeine Ali

Daksha Pathak

Eliot Lambert

Luisa Mantinelli 

Vidushi Parashar

Elle Desjardins 

Sara Varjabedian

Omar Seda

SCE Live Build: Making Space as Matrix graduate elective cohort 

Char Abanes

Cherilyn Tan

Daksha Pathak

Durdona Rustamova

Elle Desjardins

Hanna Farkouh

Julianna Yarka

Lizzy Lane

Luisa Mantelli

MinhThao Vo

Nij Balar

Rebecca Bone

Vidushi Parashar

Yuv Palit

Symposium panel speakers:

Please join us, Brian McGrath and Michele Gorman, to host an open discussion with Susana Torre, Lori Brown, Andrea Merrett, Sharon Haar, Mark Robbins, and Leyden Lewis.

Thank you to MFA Interior Design’s Representation and Analysis and Design Studio 1: Radically Inclusive Interior students and faculty Dr. Eva Perez de Vega, Kiki Goti, Kimberly Tate, and Michele Gorman.

Audio Archival Submission

If you have a story to share about the exhibition, the work presented or the people represented and would like to have it included in The New School Archive’s Feminist and Queer Collection associated with Making Space as Matrix exhibition, contact Professor Brian McGrath at mcgrath@newschool.edu. Please give a 2 week lead time so we can arrange recording equipment in room L105.