A house is not a home (for all). Learning from queerfeminist activism to rethink the domestic

A house is not a home (for all)
Learning from queerfeminist activism to rethink the domestic

Reflecting Urban Cultures
Semester 3, Brussels, English spoken.
Master of Architecture engagement Urban Cultures, Campus Sint Lucas Brussels
Academic year 2024 2025
Tutor: Irene Feria Prados

Cover picture: ‘Community and Commodity’ The Housing Monster, prole.info

We tend to think of the house as a neutral and safe space. But in reality, it is a site for political struggle. In the house, we challenge or conform to gender norms, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, cultural traditions, etc. We do domestic and emotional labour, we care for and/or are cared by. It is the space in which we can feel the most empowered, as well as the most vulnerable.

The most common architectural type of house in the western world is designed for the nuclear family: a white, heterosexual and middle class family unit. This construct is taken as universal, even though it only refers to a part of the population. But there are other types of kinships in our society that might share a household – feminist communities, families with migrational background, queer families, to name a few. For them (us?), these spaces become unfit for their social structures.

This studio is an invitation to challenge the discrepancy between these more emancipatory social structures and the standardisation of domestic spaces. Within queer and feminist activism and theory, there is a search for more egalitarian and collective ways of living together, by addressing how the intersecting factors of gender, race, sexual orientation and class play a role in discriminatory processes in our society. During the studio, we will foster a critical position towards the nuclear family housing culture and enhance these other, more inclusive spatial kinships through a design project.

TIMELINE

01_DECONSTRUCTING [THE HOUSE] Material-discursive analysis of spatial settings
*Collective work, W1-3

We will start by deconstructing the idea of the house as a ‘neutral’ space. To do so, we will disseminate the house, choosing one spatial setting and studying in its discursive-material dimensions. With the help of a theoretical text on decolonial/feminist/queer theory, you will analyse how discriminatory discourses became a material reality that is normalised in architecture.

Some examples of spatial settings + topics:

-Kitchen: (Re)productive labour as feminist struggle

-Veranda: The colonial shaded exterior as segregationist space

-Closet – Bedroom: Coming out, queering architecture

-Staircase: Spatial power dynamics of class

-Living room: Gendered enactment of architecture

02_PRECEDING [KINSHIPS]/SITUATING [THE HOUSE] Mapping alternative realities
*Collective work, W3-5

In the next step we will study historical and existing alternative architectures to the nuclear family home. From squats in Berlin to collective canteens in Méjico DF through queer firehouses in New York, these references will contribute to understanding how the domestic can be materialised in a more collective, diverse and inclusive manner. At the same time, we will start exploring the urban context of your upcoming design, the former Brasserie Atlas in Brussels – so as to seek for its potentiality and limitations to situate alternative domestic spaces.

*EXCURSION IN BXL, W5: We’ll have an intense day speaking to activist communities, visiting exhibitions, collective housing projects, our site & much more 🙂

03_NARRATING KINSHIPS Storytelling to decenter the architect’s gaze
*Individual work, W5-8

At this point, you will situate yourself and your intervention. What is your position towards the idea of the house? How do you question it as an architect? In conversation with ‘other’ kinships (extended or multigenerational families, activist collectives, queer houses, etc) in Brussels, you will identify for whom you want to design, understanding what are the needs of the users and how they can benefit from new architectural arrangements for their feminist/queer/antiracist practices. Since the studio is not only about what we do, but rather, about how we do it, we will work with graphical storytelling as a means to situate ourselves as architects. This is an invitation to disclose invisibilized stories and question the design and communication tools that we normally use as architects.

*WORKSHOP, W5: To get started with this, we will have a workshop with Stories of a street, a collective currently developing a methodology on storytelling about Nieuwe Binnenweg, Rotterdam.

A fragment of the graphic novel ‘Lavoir du jubilée’, by Iman Demol AHINAH 2023 Student work

04_RECONSTRUCTING [THE DOMESTIC] W8-14
*Individual work

The design will depart from answering what is domestic for you? Is it a collective, public kitchen, is it a communal living-room, a shared bedroom or laundry room? A house for a polyamorous couple, a temporary occupation or a collective home facilitating emotional labour?

Following this choice, the fun starts: you will experiment with unfamiliar plan layouts, feelings towards materialities and unrealistic housing subsidies. In your design, you will propose a reconfiguration of the domestic that will go from a more theoretical and activist standpoint to the material reality of it. That is, from the emancipatory political ideas that stand behind the project to its detailing and spatial feeling for a speculative construction and livability one day.

A fragment of the graphic novel ‘To make a home in between’, by Lejla Veselaj AHINAH 2023 Student work

Output:

-A graphic novel, understood in its broadest sense, that will serve as a tool to mediate between your project, the users, your positioning as architect and the broader public. It will be the medium through which you will present the story of your project’s users and the ideas behind your design.

-A relational drawing of the design proposal, explaining how social structures unfold in the physical space. The drawing will focus on representing how aspects of safety, intimacy and inclusivity are achieved through the arrangement of rooms.

-A model 1:33 of a fragment of the building. This model will explain a key moment in which materiality plays a decisive role in the creation of a collective domestic atmosphere.