Anticipation: Enhancing Schools for the Present and Unpredictable

Many of Manhattan's public schools are designated emergency shelters, expected to support a large influx of occupants during crises, even if they struggle to accommodate students under normal circumstances. Schools are valuable community anchors, and there is potential to intensify their use through architectural intervention. Current social inequalities, the advent of climate change, and the threat of pandemics pose both long- and short-term challenges that will affect human interaction with the built environment. This thesis culminates in a catalogue of architectural interventions, organized by what they offer to the school's community and student body, and how they function on two timescales: Present and Unpredictable. The premise is not to instantly solve the social problems within urban schools, but to articulate that there are a multitude of possibilities for improvement through architecture. This is an investigation of how design strategies contribute to the comfort of an occupant living an uncomfortable circumstance.