Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire

by Aaron Betsky

Betsky asserts that gay men and women have always been at the forefront of architectural innovation - reclaiming abandoned neighborhoods, redefining urban spaces, and creating liberating interiors out of hostile environments. These "queer spaces" reflect the experiences of homosexuals in a straight culture. Often forced to hide their true nature, gay men and women have turned inward, playing with the norms of interior space and creating environments of stagecraft and celebration where they can define themselves without fear. Their experiments point the way to an architecture that can free us all from the imprisoning structures and spaces of the modern city.

Genres: Queer, Architecture, LGBT, Nonfiction, Theory, Sexuality

231 pages, Hardcover

First published April 2, 1997

About the author

Aaron Betsky is an American critic on art, architecture and design. He was the director of Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design until early 2022.
Trained as an architect and in the humanities at Yale University, he is the author of over a dozen books, including Architecture Matters, Making It Modern, Landscrapers: Building With the Land, Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio, Queer Space, Revelatory Landscapes, and Architecture Must Burn. Internationally known as a lecturer, curator, reviewer and commentator, he writes the blog "Beyond Buildings" for Architect Magazine. Director of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale, he has also been president and Dean of the School of Architecture at Taliesin (originally the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture), director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (2001-2006) the Cincinnati Art Museum (2006-2014), and was founding Curator of Architecture, Design and Digital Projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995-2001). As an unlicensed architect, he worked for Frank O. Gehry and Associates and Hodgetts + Fung. In 2003, he co-curated "Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio" at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Reviews

[Spencer]

honestly fuck u aaron betsky and your weirdly heteronormative queer theory

[Reeter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/queerspac...

This book reads like 90's queer theory, severely lacking in nuance. However, there is still some interesting information in here, and I think those who are interested in both queer theory and architecture, could use this as a jumping off point. And if I may, I'd like to link some more recent and inclusive resources about queer spaces here, for those wanting to dive further:

*Architectural Review
*Queering Architecture
*Now What Article
*Historical England Inclusive Heritage
*QSpace Website

Alright, now onto the review.

First, the only thing I liked about this book: all the historical good good. Historically, gay men and women have had to hide in plain site in spaces made by (and mostly for) straight men. When gays finally started carving out their own spaces, those places were dive bars, shady clubs, piers, parks at night, etc. Dark, out of the way, where privacy is a main factor, and where the 'normal' straight person wouldn't see or think about.

This was all extremely fascinating to me. Made my inner queer history nerd and architecture nerd shriek with delight. But that's about it.

Now, for the bad: Everything else. The writing is short, but sparse in its information. The overall structure was confusing, as it went from one subject to the other with little transition. The chapters covered more broad topics, rather than narrowing it down. The research is, unsurprisingly, centered on the spaces and experiences of cis gay men, with lesbians getting passing mentions.

I don't regret reading it, after all, it lead me to doing more research on my own. However, I think it's better for this book to be read for free, than to be used in a course.

[Buse Özçelik · Rating 3 out of 5]

couldn’t catch how philip johnson’s architecture was queer. yet more how tf was johnson’s at&t building in Manhattan the queerest? highly heteronormative way of reading so-called queer modernism.

[stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

so i disagreed with nearly everything he posited

[Cassi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this before doing my masters project in Architecture. Very interesting.

[Leigh Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting subject, but could do with separating into discrete chapters.