essay_Jingyi

key provocation of the course:

what makes a space queer

what role does built and urban space play in constructing and sustaining queer identities

key objectives (aka what your essay should aim to incorporate)

queer theory

relationship to built and urban environments

theoretical references of essay

'queer reading' of space

description/analysis of the building

heteronormative modes of thinking

how they are challenged

queerness - otherness, deviance?

queerness 'in-situ' -> impact/ influence of the buiding

overview

lecture 1 - queer theory

lecture 2 - queer style/ aesthetics

what makes an architectural style 'queer'

Jobst asks if a work of art should be understood as queer if it ‘‘represents same-sex desire, if its author’s biography indicates same-sex erotic attraction, or if it or one that has tobe read against the grain to expose its queerness.’

lecture 3 - closets

the place of the closet - power relationships

lecture 4 - queer urban space

lecture 5 - queer inclusive design

lecture 6 - queer memorialisation

lecture 7 - post colonial reading

connecting queerness to other form of political/cultural relationships

the essay

case study

why is it a queer space

methodological/ theoretical lens

link to theory texts in class

essay plan

above + bibiography

Some possible case studies you can consider in Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA Places and Stories

Alan Buchsbaum’s 12 Greene Street Project

Building and Occupancy:

Alan Buchsbaum, Robert Morris, and Rosalind Krauss purchased an industrial building in Soho, NYC, in 1976

(need further research on the background of the designer)

Buchsbaum occupied the first two levels; the ground floor was his office, and the first floor served as his apartment with an open mezzanine.

Design Philosophy and Features:

laboratory for architectural experimentation, emphasizing industrial materials like ceramic tiles.

Tiles - trademark material, used extensively in the corridor, bathroom, kitchen, and bed platform in colors like oyster white, olive green, turquoise blue, and shiny black.

Central feature: a splash-shaped bathtub surrounded by a tropical garden in a ground-floor greenhouse, originally placed in the employees’ lounge.

Architectural Elements and Innovations:

The design mimicked the clandestine atmosphere of cruising spaces with features like a serpentine glass block wall and recessed airport-blue lights.

Shadows on the glass divider created voyeuristic effects, reminiscent of saunas and bathhouses.

Industrial lighting and materials (metro shelving, Russell & Stoll lamps, and fluorescent lights) redefined their urban and social significance.

Cultural and Queer Influences:

The bathtub, prominently placed in communal areas, was intended to shock and symbolize openness, paying homage to New York gay bathhouses.

Tiles referenced the queer history of bathhouses, which served as safe spaces for gay men during times of discrimination.

Tiles were practical (durable, sanitary) and evoked themes of cruising spaces, gay urbanism, and a rejection of societal norms.

Legacy and Symbolism:

integrated queer urbanism into his designs, bridging private and public spaces with materials like tiles.

celebrated the social and cultural history of NYC’s gay community through design elements that highlighted furtive and sexually charged spaces.

Tiles and industrial materials were employed as tools for social recomposition and homage to 1970s queer urban culture.

some possible theory framework

Queer theory

Judith Butler

performative and constructed nature of gender

design of the 12 greene project emphasize fluidity and openness

centrality of bathtub

symbolic challenge of hetreonormative spatial hierachies

Queer aesthetics/styles

Jobst, M (2023) “Queering Architectural History” in In Queering Architecture: Methods, Practices, Spaces Pedagogies, London: Bloomsbury. pp50-66

material norms

Sontag, S (1964) Notes on Camp

Camp - rooted in a playful, ironic attitude; celebrates artifice, stylization and theatricality; preferring the extravagant over the sublte

Camp - embraced by queer communities as modes of cultural resistance and self expression (drag culture as an example of camp)

design of the project -> playful and deliberate provocation, embracing theatricality and deviance

Closet of privacy and power

serpentine glass block wall

obscures yet reveals ; blur the boundaries between public and pivate , power and intimacy (Philip Johnson)

link to closet as the metaphor of queer invisibility and visibility

Queer urbanism

homage to new york bathhouse

link to broader themes of queer urban space as sites of resistance and community building

layering of private and commual elements

possible link to design in queer urban villages and queer inclusive spaces?

a form of queer memorilisation

celebrating bathhouse as a queer symbol - a subversive and charged architectural lineage

post colonial theory

Stoler, A (1989) “Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in 20th century Colonial Cultures’ pp634-660

design and esthetics (cleanness, sharpness, use of industial materials) - resistance of social norms and reestablish the legitamacy of queerness

link to post colonial discussion of how spatial design encodes power, race and sexual politics