Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories

Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories

Published 01 May 2022
Adam Nathaniel Furman & Joshua Mardell
RIBA Publishing

For this new atlas I was invited to select and write about queer spaces from across the world. I chose the Queer Space design and research project that I conceptualised and curated for the Architecture Fringe, as well as the wonderful Category Is Books bookshop in the southside of Glasgow.

Category Is Books was founded by wusband and wusband team Charlotte (they/them) and Fin Duffy-Scott (they/them) in 2018. The bookshop is located in Glasgow’s Govanhill neighbourhood.

When thinking about ecologies of queerness, and the infrastructures required to help a queer population adapt, survive, and thrive in any particular social, cultural or physical environment, bookshops can be a potent source of individual and collective nourishment. 

Queer Space is a research and design project which invited queer club producers based in Glasgow to imagine their ideal nightclub. Paired with local architects and designers, together they explored the potential for queer/ed architectures, aesthetics, spatial programming and social occupation. The entry for the Atlas presented the collaboration between club producer Sarra Wild of OH141 and designer Cécile Ngọc Sương Perdu.

To help celebrate the launch of the book I organised and programmed a book launch in Glasgow. Originally to be hosted at Bonjour, the event was kindly hosted by the CCA at very late notice due to plumbing issues at Bonjour. I hosted the sell-out event, and joining me on the panel were editors Adam Nathaniel Furman and Joshua Mardell, Sarra Wild, Charlotte Duffy-Scott and Fin Duffy-Scott. The sell-out event raised £400 for the Bonjour Community Fund.

Image: Front cover

Glasgow book launch poster by Andy Summers