Divided into three sections-Domestic, Communal, and Public- Queer Spaces begins with the most intimate form of architecture, touching on historic and contemporary domestic spaces such as private homes, the U.K. The idea of queer domestic space as a portal to greater systems of care in the public sphere is also apparent in Nathaniel Furman and Mardell’s atlas. For Vider, queer domestic spaces are sites of connection, care, and community and he writes, “Home should not be understood as a sealed private space, but rather a portal to the public.” Illustrated with intimate archival photography, the book looks at topics such as lesbian feminist architecture, community caregiving and the politics of HIV/AIDS, and the future of the queer home. Expanding on the queer domestic spaces throughout the postwar United States, the book uncovers what happens when queer folks use the home as a way of reimagining the built environment as a tool to embody their desires and identities. The innovation that comes from the need to remain hidden is a central theme in Cornell University professor, Stephen Vider’s new book titled The Queerness of Home: Gender, Sexuality, and the Politics of Domesticity after World War II. While the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” mentality has faded in the United States, the dangers of visibility persists throughout the world. Nourishment,” writes Andy Summers on Glasgow’s Category is Books. Infrastructures required to help a queer populationĪdapt, survive and thrive in any particular social,Ĭultural or physical environment, bookshops canīe a potent source of individual and collective In a lot of countries can do their thing, as long as they don’t shout about it.” “When thinking about ecologies of queerness, and the Nathaniel Furman explains, “Large parts of the world have really amazing queer scenes-but they’re not safe to be published.
The volume is an impressive step in recording these often-invisible spaces-but is by no means exhaustive.
Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories (RIBA, March 2022) proves the necessity of physical queer spaces with nearly 100 contributed projects and essays dedicated not only to cisgender “queer men and women” but also trans, nonbinary, and the full range of multifaceted identities that make up the growing acronym. In a largely white, western context perhaps this is true, but five years later, a new book edited by designer Adam Nathaniel Furman and architectural historian Joshua Mardell points to other truths.
In a 2017 Q&A featured in the “Working Queer” issue of Log, Betsky ponders the “End of Queer Space?” when he tells New Affiliates cofounder, Jaffer Kolb: “My sense is the physical places where queer men and women had to go to define themselves aren’t necessary anymore.” In other words, with the rise of technology, social media, and location-based dating apps, queer people no longer need to rely on underground cruising spots to find sex or community. But how do these ideas take shape post-graduation? Where are the queer spaces in practice? Is there a way to design queerly? Architecture programs across North America host queer space courses, student organizations, and symposia. While much of the scholarly discourse surrounding queerness in the built environment (most notably Aaron Betsky’s seminal 1997 book Queer Space: Architecture and Same Sex Desire) can be-and is often-critiqued for centering the perspectives of cisgender, white, gay men. It appears that the idea of what queer space is or means continously gets rehashed in academia. How does one define what queer space is when the concept of what it means to be queer itself is beyond categorization, definition, and, ideally, commodification? Just as there is no single representation of what it’s like to be queer, or experience the world queerly, there is no single style or architectural typology that defines queer space. But magic is mysterious, hard to pin down.