BLDG FOR LINEAR BODY MOVEMENTS
Academic Work | Individual Work
Design Option Studio I - Cornell AAP
Year: FA 2025
Type: Adaptive Reuse of Former Jail
Site Location: Rikers Island, NY
Instructor: Florian Idenburg + Daniela Leon
From Confinement to Liberation
Reclaiming a Former Jail on Rikers Island
This proposal explores the adaptive reuse of the James A. Thomas Center on Rikers Island, a former prison defined by its extreme linearity. Rather than treating this inherited form as a constraint, the project reclaims linearity through movement, transforming a building once associated with confinement and surveillance into a space of liberation, performance, and encounter. Diverse bodily activities are arranged along its length, producing fragmented and intense experiences rather than a single, total view. Loosely connected by a public realm, moments of overlap and collision are embraced as virtues, reimagining Rikers as a place where bodies, events, and differences collide and remain alive, unpredictable, and unmistakably part of New York City.
Inherent Elongated Form
Built in 1933 as the first permanent jail on Rikers Island, the James A. Thomas Center is defined by its extreme linearity. With a maximum length of 660 feet, the building stretches nearly two-thirds of a typical New York City block and rivals the scale of nearby skyscrapers. This exaggerated length is not incidental, but the building’s most dominant and defining architectural characteristic.
James A. Taylor Center (1933)
Linear Liberation
Inside this long and narrow structure, inmates were confined as fixed points within cells placed at the center of each wing, while guards moved freely along corridors on both sides, maintaining constant surveillance. Ironically, within a building defined by extreme length, those incarcerated experienced space as a point rather than a path.
Reclaiming this inherited linear form through linear body movement became a way to confront the building’s history, transforming a structure once associated with confinement into a spatial gesture of liberation and a quiet act of healing.
Reclaiming this inherited linear form through linear body movement became a way to confront the building’s history, transforming a structure once associated with confinement into a spatial gesture of liberation and a quiet act of healing.
Confinement as a Point Linear Liberation
Bldg for Linear Body Movements
To activate the building’s extreme linearity, the project assembles a range of linear body movements that unfold along its length. Six activities were selected, each calibrated to the dimensions of the James A. Thomas Center, ranging from slow and short movements to fast and extended ones, from weddings to FMX. Each activity demands a distinct length and height, and is assigned to a specific wing accordingly, progressing from short to long and from slow to fast
The building is organized into eight wings supported by a central service spine. Performers, athletes, and workers move along this middle zone before branching into each wing, while visitors access the programs from the second level, allowing production and observation to operate in parallel without interruption.
The building is organized into eight wings supported by a central service spine. Performers, athletes, and workers move along this middle zone before branching into each wing, while visitors access the programs from the second level, allowing production and observation to operate in parallel without interruption.
Compilation of Linear Body Movements Allocation of Linear Body Movements to Wings
Re-entry of Rikers into New York City
For Rikers Island to be fully reabsorbed into New York City, it must become New York–like. The James A. Thomas Center once operated as a monofunctional jail where individuality was erased and inmates existed as numbers in identical uniforms. In contrast, New York thrives on density, overlap, and difference. As Rem Koolhaas describes in the Downtown Athletic Club, “eating oysters with boxing gloves on,” this culture of congestion is what makes New York, New York.
Six radically different activities are arranged along the building and loosely connected by a shared public realm. Their intentional proximity allows moments of nuisance, collision, and spillover to occur. A wedding procession may drift toward a fashion runway, or celebration may interrupt performance. Through these overlaps, Rikers shifts from isolation to participation, transforming from a closed institution into an active and unmistakable part of New York City.
Six radically different activities are arranged along the building and loosely connected by a shared public realm. Their intentional proximity allows moments of nuisance, collision, and spillover to occur. A wedding procession may drift toward a fashion runway, or celebration may interrupt performance. Through these overlaps, Rikers shifts from isolation to participation, transforming from a closed institution into an active and unmistakable part of New York City.
Previous Rikers New York Reimagined Rikers
Monofunctional Island Culture of Congestion From Monofunctionality to Culture of Congestion
and end up right in front of the threshold of fashion runway.
Fragmented Sequence
The building’s inherent condition is long, linear, and narrow. As a result, audiences cannot grasp movement in its entirety at once. Instead, events unfold right in front of the body, at close proximity. I saw this not as a limitation, but as an opportunity to propose a new mode of audience experience. Rather than a stadium style overview, viewers encounter fragments, intense fractions of a second rather than a continuous sequence.
In place of conventional seating, the project proposes a standing audience experience inspired by opera balconies. Projecting further than the existing colonnade, these balconies bring spectators face to face with movement. The balcony and circulation structure responds to the rhythm of the original columns, yet contrasts them through lighter materiality. The facade acts as a frame, capturing and revealing the actions unfolding within the building.
In place of conventional seating, the project proposes a standing audience experience inspired by opera balconies. Projecting further than the existing colonnade, these balconies bring spectators face to face with movement. The balcony and circulation structure responds to the rhythm of the original columns, yet contrasts them through lighter materiality. The facade acts as a frame, capturing and revealing the actions unfolding within the building.
Virtue of Nuisance
As we grew older, our field of vision narrows, our boundaries shrink. Each day starts to resemble the last, and people around us become increasingly similar to ourselves. They say that time feels faster as we age because the brain stops storing what it has already experienced. Repetition collapses time. Similar days, similar people, similar routines.
But here, the opposite happens.
People lying down with no particular purpose. People moving toward entirely different events. Having a glimpse of movements behind walls. The sound of motorcycles. Voices. Laughter. Smells. Lighting. Everything collides. A cyclist might accidentally roll into a wedding hall. A balenciaga model might get lost and end up at the edge of motorcross jump. A nearly naked person sunbathing might stand beside a fully dressed guest in NY fashion week. This is a place where people mix and collide. A place full of unexpected moments. Chaotic. Yes. But alive. I want this building to be a place where people feel that they are alive.
But here, the opposite happens.
People lying down with no particular purpose. People moving toward entirely different events. Having a glimpse of movements behind walls. The sound of motorcycles. Voices. Laughter. Smells. Lighting. Everything collides. A cyclist might accidentally roll into a wedding hall. A balenciaga model might get lost and end up at the edge of motorcross jump. A nearly naked person sunbathing might stand beside a fully dressed guest in NY fashion week. This is a place where people mix and collide. A place full of unexpected moments. Chaotic. Yes. But alive. I want this building to be a place where people feel that they are alive.
BLDG FOR LINEAR BODY MOVEMENT is an individual project developed within the framework of the Cinematic Island master plan, a collaborative team project for Rikers Island. While the portfolio presents this work independently due to spatial constraints, the project originates from a collective master planning effort that established the site logic, programmatic strategy, and overall narrative. This building was selected from the master plan and further developed individually as an architectural investigation into movement, sequencing, and bodily experience.
Cinematic Island
Amina Lahham, David Perovsek, Jaewon Choi, Torben Karl
This master plan is a collaborative project. Individual contributions are credited accordingly.
This master plan is a collaborative project. Individual contributions are credited accordingly.
New York City is an archipelago with a deep history of utilizing its smaller constituent islands as places of exile. This confining island conditioning was appropriated for citizens deemed undesirable, such as sicknesses, violence, unhoused, or mental health complications. Today, Rikers Island stands as the final cloister of exile set for redefinition in 2027 with the scheduled closing of the vast jail complex.
This master plan transforms Rikers Island from a confined space, where identities, experiences, and stories were systematically erased and lost, into an Island of communal collaboration toward the sharing of memories, ideas, and stories. Now Rikers Island serves as the catalyst of production for the sharing of stories, ideas, memories, and experiences of the city. Through the diverse mediums of art, music, performance, and film–this new campus of cultural (production) transforms histories of isolation and loneliness into collaboration and communication.
This master plan transforms Rikers Island from a confined space, where identities, experiences, and stories were systematically erased and lost, into an Island of communal collaboration toward the sharing of memories, ideas, and stories. Now Rikers Island serves as the catalyst of production for the sharing of stories, ideas, memories, and experiences of the city. Through the diverse mediums of art, music, performance, and film–this new campus of cultural (production) transforms histories of isolation and loneliness into collaboration and communication.
*Amina Lahham
*Jaewon Choi
*David Perovsek
*David Perovsek
*Amina Lahham
*Amina Lahham
*Torben Karl
*Jaewon Choi
*Jaewon Choi
*Torben Karl
:)