Recipient of 2018 NYSCA Independent Project Grant

This is not your door: Spaces of Exclusion in New York—The Lottery, the Membership and the Application explores the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion at three different scales in New York City: the domestic spaces of mixed-income developments resulting from inclusionary housing programs; the leisure interiors of social clubs offering privacy, security and comfort; and the educational settings of colleges and universities responding to contemporary discussions on fair admission, minorities and diversity.

This is not your door maps the connection between the transformation of the urban landscape, the admission to these interior environments and the design of new communities, articulated through the legal documents of the lottery (in the case of the affordable domestic interiors), the membership and the application (as in the case of social clubs and universities, respectively.) These regulations and documents granting access shape the daily life spaces of New York, designing economic, class, gender, age and race differences.

The aim is not only to unveil the relationship between the legal frames and the places we inhabit but also to envision alternative models of inclusion and accessibility.

Wendy Carduner, the general manager of Doubles, a private club in the Sherry-Netherland hotel in New York. The club is popular with tweens from rich families. Photo: Bryan Thomas for the New York Times.

Private pool at One Riverside Park apartment. Photo: Evan Joseph and Extell Development Company.

Elon University campus, North Carolina. Photo: Elon University.