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Book Review ‘Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories’


Book Review ‘Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories’

We are continuing our series of book reviews in which members of the dRMM team share a book that has allowed them to evolve either their thinking or their approach to architectural practice.

Architectural Assistant Myah Phelan shares their thoughts on why ‘Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories’ (edited by Adam Nathaniel Furman and Joshua Mardell and published by RIBA Publishing) is a critical text that highlights realities that have been absent from how we experience and make places.

Why did you choose this book?

I chose to read the book as it is an atlas charting different queer spaces globally. I haven’t come across any books that have done that before. It is significant for that reason. In a sense, it goes beyond being a book and becomes a network that provides details of other queer people in architecture.

The book raises awareness. As a queer person, you are already isolated. In academia, when studying architecture and defining your approach to design briefs, people are informed by spaces that are relevant to their own experiences. Typically, there are lots of academic texts that validate these experiences. To design a queer space as part of an academic architecture programme, you are missing precedents, you can refer to queer discourse in the arts, but that conceptualises your project. This book provides tangible queer space case studies. It is of major significance that a book like this has only just been published in 2022. It shows how, despite the fact we are in the 21st century and we feel we can talk about topics openly, there are many things that remain closeted.

The book speaks for a variety of queer identities. The start and end of the book focuses on positive and negative experiences of being queer and the way queer people might experience space. It gives the example of a trans person leaving their house and putting their make-up on because it is something they cannot do at home. I was worried that the book would focus on the experience of being a white gay male, as that can be a dominant perspective, but it is a collaborative text, it does its best to reach out to different communities across the world. It addresses intersectionality by covering the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre in London acknowledging the fact you can be black, queer, and non-binary.

As a queer person, you are already isolated. In academia, when studying architecture and defining your approach to design briefs, people are informed by spaces that are relevant to their own experiences. Typically, there are lots of academic texts that validate these experiences. To design a queer space as part of an academic architecture programme you are missing precedents, you can refer to queer discourse in the arts, but that conceptualises your project.

Why did you enjoy the book?

The book is enjoyable as it includes different examples from all over the world. It charts international differences in the queer experience. In countries that are less liberal, it is very difficult to be openly queer and that makes the existence of queer space even more vital as it provides a place where people can be authentically themselves.

I enjoyed the story of Anne Lister and Ann Walker who married in the Holy Trinity church in York in 1834. It is striking to think that despite the historical repression of queer people, three hundred years ago, this couple were allowed to go to a traditional, conservative space and have a same sex marriage. This is even more exceptional when you consider that The Civil Partnership Act was only passed in 2004 (coming into effect in December 2005) and that the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act was passed in 2013 (coming into effect in March 2014). The decision of the editors to include this story in the book is important. It brings into question what we know about lesbianism, how, historically, it has been tied to bourgeois society and how people were allowed to explore their queerness in pocket spaces.

I am glad there are people who are researching and celebrating queer space as the people who are in control of the spaces we inhabit all too often do not have exposure to queer people, their culture, and their spaces. Queer spaces are vital, it takes the sense of community queer people find in a specific place for them to be themselves. This is another aspect that is important about this book, it is set out as an atlas that geographically pinpoints the places where people can go to find solidarity, in this way, it goes beyond being a book, it is a lifeline that allows people to access support and information.

Were there any case studies in the book that stood out for you?

The book features spaces that have been designed to serve queer communities and spaces that have been appropriated by queer communities. I enjoyed reading about the Coppelia in Havana – a modernist Ice-Cream parlour designed to a giant scale by architect Mario Girona on the orders of Fidel Castro – who apparently loved ice cream – during the Cuban Revolution in Havana. The space was created as a socialist act, bringing low-cost ice cream to the masses. The building, and the park in which it is situated, became a cruising spot for gay men with the ice cream names being used as covert references to sexual acts and preferences.

I liked the coverage of the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre in London as it highlighted that often gay rights activism has been led by black lesbians and black gay men. It gave me a frame of reference for events that I have attended recently at The Prince of Peckham, a panel discussion hosted by The Noire Gayze which was open to everyone providing the opportunity to learn about the experience of being black and queer in different careers. It strikes me that as we move through time and assume we have progressed, often conversations remain the same and are rooted in the same issues, which shows that there is a need to have a variety of queer spaces in which these dialogues can be continued in the pursuit of real change.

The Coppelia, c.Susanne Hultman
The Coppelia, c.Susanne Hultman
The Coppelia, c. Havana Cultura
The Coppelia, c. Havana Cultura

How has the book informed your architectural work?

As a designer, you always hold your identity in the back of your mind. What the book has shown me is a non-conforming idea of architecture. How you can fight for places that are different, that have queerness in their identity. By seeing the examples in the book I am reassured that these projects are relevant, that they are an important form of architecture. It has given me security and a feeling that I can pursue my own ideas in my design. That my ideas are valid and that they have reference and a basis and that they are important. There have been times where I have felt that queerness and architecture have no overlap, but this book has changed this and has given validation to a relationship between the two.

It has given me security and a feeling that I can pursue my own ideas in my design. That my ideas are valid and that they have reference and a basis and that they are important. There have been times where I have felt that queerness and architecture have no overlap, but this book has changed this and has given validation to a relationship between the two.

How has the book changed your thinking?

When I first bought the book, I thought it would be stereotypical – night clubs and the more conventional, more recognised, side of queerness. I was glad to find that it offered a broader definition of queer space, showing that queer space could be a church, or an ice cream parlour. That queer spaces are not always perceived as queer spaces, that there can be a duality to everyday spaces. The fact that anywhere could be a queer space creates a sense of belonging, a sense of relief.

Why would you recommend the book to people inside and outside of the field of architecture?

I would recommend this book to everybody. It’s not hard to read as, unlike other architecture texts, it isn’t made up of big blocks of information. This book should be read by people in architectural practice to gain a new perspective on how buildings have been used as queer spaces. For people outside the world of architecture it is an important text in raising awareness that queer spaces have always existed. It includes some outlandish stories. There is also the shock value of the stories that are politically and historically important, these are important tools to build an understanding of queer communities. It is also relevant if you are a queer person, who is not into architecture, but are looking to travel and seek out places where you might find solidarity.

There is still a lack of information about the queer experience. Heterosexual / CIS people will not gravitate towards the book naturally. There is a lack of natural encouragement for them to look into minority things such as queerness or blackness.

Is there anything I should have asked you about the book that I haven't?

‘Why do I think I’m the only person in the studio that has read the book?’ Everyone should read this book!!! There is still a lack of information about the queer experience. Heterosexual / CIS people will not gravitate towards the book naturally. There is a lack of natural encouragement for them to look into minority things such as queerness or blackness. There needs to be a push for a greater appreciation of otherness in architecture. More people should be encouraged to read texts like this so they can relate to that which is other, especially architectural designers, so they don’t overlook things they could be designing into spaces that might support queer communities.

Big conversations still need to be had in architecture about equality, diversity, and inclusion. Books like this give people a vocabulary to be able to communicate about specific issues – it is about building a framework for dialogue. It is also about intersectionality, the ability to think about things in broader and more interrelated terms. That is the basis you need for tackling things which are complex. You can have better conversations that get into the heart of the matter. The major problem is with awkwardness, the more you can build knowledge through texts like this the easier it gets.

Book Review ‘Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories’

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Book Review ‘Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories’

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