Abstract
Intersectionality is a term first coined by African-American civil rights activist Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. As an Associate Professor of Architecture in a five-year undergraduate program in the southeastern United States, I have begun to introduce the concept of intersectionality and the issues of race, gender, and identity within the context of a third-year design studio. My paper focuses on design studios given in Fall 2018/19 in which students designed a Diversity Center for under-represented groups that included LGBTQ+ youth, the homeless, African-American youth, immigrants, and marginalized women. Exercises within the studio, included In Your Face, in which students in groups of two, created a hybrid identity through morphing their initial individual portraits. The resulting non-binary imagery was then used to literally create an architectural facade system for buildings that house under-represented, non-profit organizations that provide outreach to the HIV/AIDS, queer, transgendered and immigrant communities. The results of the studios were highlighted in a curated exhibition entitled Intersectional Architectures in Fall 2019. The exhibition featured the work of twenty-seven students who had participated in the ‘intersectional’ studios. It also included the manifesto ACT UP! Architecture that calls on architecture to be. “… less white, less patriarchal, more colorful, more fem, more butch, more intersectional, more entangled…” in order for it to become more culturally relevant. In Your Face: Identity, Intersectionality and Architecture is a call for architecture to become not only more provocative and meaningful for the general public but also within academia the students we teach.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Design, Diversity, Culture, Gender, Identity, Queer, Architecture
