Last week, President Trump rescinded an Obama-era order that had provided protections for transgender and gender nonconforming (GNC) students by allowing them to use bathrooms that correlate to their gender identity. Often unnoticed spaces, bathrooms have become the locus point for struggles to secure civil rights for trans and GNC individuals since the passing of exclusionary ‘Bathroom Bills’ in North Carolina and nine other states last year, which, among many other things, force individuals to use bathrooms that correspond to the sex registered on their birth certificate. QSPACE, a “queer architecture research organization” based at the GSAPP Incubator in New York, has been working to expose the complicity of design in this dangerous architecture of normativity: “how laws, codes, and design standards systematically create exclusionary and sometimes violent spaces for members of the LGBTQ community.”
“The language behind HB2 and other bathroom bills defining gender as biological sex is putting transgender and gender non-conforming people into possibly violent situations,” Lauren Johnson, a co-founder of QSPACE, tells me over Skype. With their on-going project, Coded Plumbing, QSPACE juxtaposes the language of these bills with the language of building codes, plumbing codes and best-practice standards, finding that design regulations parallel the binarism of these laws and ordinances—in other words, the assertion of strictly two, distinct and opposite gender identities. In the process, design enforces and materializes this binary in space, creating environments that are hostile to, or potentially unsafe for, certain bodies. But it doesn’t have to.
design can and should play an active role in responding to social change
“Central to our practice is the belief that design can and should play an active role in responding to social change,” Johnson continues. “It seems obvious that your designs have implications for the people that occupy them but, for most people before the bathroom bill came to light, these places were seen as really standard and banal. We’re trying to unravel that.”
The exhibitions engage the way gender norms are structured into seemingly apolitical building codes. For example, section P104.0 of the New York building code mandates: “Facilities for each sex where public toilets or bathing facilities are designed for use by more than one person at a time, separate facilities shall be installed for each sex.” In other words, gender segregation is mandated by law, so even if you want to include a gender-neutral bathroom in your restaurant, you might not be allowed to. Meanwhile, the existence of people who conform to neither a normative female or male identity is entirely erased in the eyes of the law.
Then you get to a place like North Carolina, where conservative politicians have whipped up fear and prejudice in the name of protecting ciswomen and children from, assumedly, cismale pedophiles disguised as transwomen. In fact, more Republican lawmakers have been convicted of sexual misconduct in bathrooms than trans people. Laws like HB2 force trans and GNC people to use bathrooms that don’t correspond to their gender identity or appearance, exposing them to tremendous risk of violence, while they are already disproportionately targeted, attacked, and murdered.
where you put a bathroom door has implications
QSPACE is, according to Johnson and her design partner Ryan Day, a fundamentally pragmatic organization. Coded Plumbing is not just an exposition of research, it’s also a toolkit. So, alongside two exhibitions (and another on the way), QSPACE is working to create a free online resource that architects can use to both engage their coworkers in a conversation about the role of design in enforcing gender norms and also to come up with more inclusive plans.
“It quite often falls on the young architects to produce these spaces within larger plans and to figure out the smaller details at the beginning of the project,” Day explains. “So when they’re looking for resources online and doing their research, we’re supplying an alternative design for them to plug into the plans.” The duo described the importance of sightlines as an example. While one might imagine that the more private the bathroom entrance the better, QSPACE found that, in fact, many GNC people prefer more public viewpoints. “We really [realized] that where you put a bathroom door has implications,” Johnson states.
Following the release of their toolkit, the publication of a book and the final exhibition, QSPACE hopes to shift towards other urgent design issues affecting the LGBTQ community. “Housing is a political issue that architects have a lot of presence in, yet there’s not specifically anyone in the architecture community, as far as I’m aware, concerned with the needs of LGBTQ homeless youth and really advocating for that,” Johnson says. “That’s something that, once we have Coded Plumbing more complete, we hope to start working on.”We would like to be a space for queer architects, anywhere, to have a place to come and be able to produce resources and projects
Currently, QSPACE is supported by Columbia University, where Johnson and Day studied and founded QSAPP, a student-run organization with which they continue to maintain a relationship (and collaborated with for Coded Plumbing). In the future, Johnson and Day hope QSPACE will grow into a stable entity to support LGBTQ architects and students. Both Day and Johnson noted the striking paucity of visibility—and mentors—for queer architects in both the profession and academic discipline. “There is a lack of LGBTQ architects at the national level,” says Johnson. “We would like to be able to have a funding structure that would enable us to fund young, small projects like the one we got started with.”
“We would like to be a space for queer architects, anywhere, to have a place to come and be able to produce resources and projects,” states Johnson.
Find out more about QSPACE here.
Writer and fake architect, among other feints. Principal at Adjustments Agency. Co-founder of Encyclopedia Inc. Get in touch: nicholas@archinect.com
20 Comments
can people just use some common sense and go to the bathroom where it's not going to cause people to feel uncomfortable? this is not hard. your all gender bathroom signs and muslim safety pins etc don't mean shit.
what does that even mean?
if you whip something out to piss, for purely practical and biological reasons, you should use the Male bathroom. granted you may be able to hit the mark in a urinal without your own biologically attached hose, but do that with the back of your pants still pulled up, some decency please. Call me when you do that - standing, only fly undone, pissing right into the elevated urinal.....ok what were we talking about? going to use the gif in my standard set of dwgs, very informative.
You know what, you are starting to act like a rank fuck. Let's follow this logically, dummy, if you are taking hormones, transitioning from female to male, and your beard is growing in, your arms are buff as fuck, you've strapped your breasts down, because you've not had the requisite surgery. For all intents and purposes, you appear male. The only thing, you sit when you pee. You mean to tell me, you fucking infant, that you would feel "safer" by forcing this trans-person to pee in the ladies room? Grow the fuck up.
so the bearded lady has to use the male room and not the female?
Um, the Bearded Lady, can use whatever fucking toilet she wants; she's the Bearded Fucking Lady. Why is this complicated. Yes, if a woman came into the men's room, I'd pause. Yes, I imagine, women might pause if a man went into the women's toilet. Short of that, I don't see - literally - a problem with multiple genders, using the same space to shit, or piss. Unless you plan on making a bee-line to hold a cock, or insert a pad; keep your brain inside your stall, and inside your pants.
I have a very large project for a very large client and they specifically asked for only toilet stalls... no urinals anywhere in the project.
So, just walk into whatever room and all you see is 8 identical stall doors. Pick one and do your thing. Still have to label them M & F for permit, but that's as far as it goes.
I'm not so sure they are as flexible with the shower and changerooms. Something to check.
oh wait, Urinals are sexist bigot machines! its the Urinals fault, not surewhy I didnt see that one..m
yes, when in doubt, blame the inanimate object.
Where are all of these rowdy trans and transvestite people that have caused so much trouble that legislatures need to take a break from growing the economy or fighting drug addiction to make this an issue requiring their immediate attention. It is a solution looking for a nonexistent problem.
https://mic.com/articles/114066/statistics-show-exactly-how-many-times-trans-people-have-attacked-you-in-bathrooms#.M6OAYrE3v
Urinals are a means to conserve water and are optional in many jurisdictions.
There is a need for people to respond politically to this shameful hate filled effort to make trans people and other sexual minorities as miserable as possible. I see nothing wrong or frivolous with the efforts to create gender neutral restrooms as a political response.
Over and OUT
Peter N
I think you're all missing the point here. The Urinal was developed specifically for males with penises (or however you'd like to define that fact - a human with a penis), but if you can prove me wrong call me.
I taught at a school that had "gender neutral" bathrooms, all that amounted to was, when the women's bathroom was full, women ended up in the men's bathroom. under no circumstance did the men go into the women's, this was just understood, and if you tried - women made sure you left...
the urinal is developed for people with penises. if you eliminate the urinal you eliminate part of the sex separation, no? but now that urinals have been developed you see the obvious benefit, they take up less space, they are more efficient as Peter notes, etc...now how are you going to eliminate the Urinal from bathroom design?
last but not least, on the politics of all this, lets just disregard the majority of humanity that have various values (religious and all that bullshit) that actually directly or indirectly require the separation of penises from vaginas. let's just ignore all those humans and/or call them bigots. at some point in your life you have to discriminate or have values or whatever you want to call 'having an opinion on life.'
now this is a urinal - with all the frat boy macho ism
THE OPRESSOR
Quit with the faux bullshit, everyone here, and everyone out there, knows what this is about. This is about men with small penises, and women seeing them, and emasculating you.
haha, now you got a sense of humor. See that's plastic, not real, like faux.
so if you forget your fake penis what do you do?
here's a test for you, standard macho male high school shit, if you can watch your significant other take a shit and still think they're hot, you're in love. I'm wagering there are a whole bunch of people, like people who think this debate is about "emasculation" (really? what planet?) who can't do that.
Are you going to continue moving the goal posts?
and NYC building code, really? copied pasted here...and NYC really? come-on man, I get North Carolina, they are all Christians and shit, far worse than those liberal progressive Muslims (oh lord!) yada yada...
403.2 Separate facilities. Where plumbing fixtures are required, separate facilities shall be provided for each sex.
Exceptions:
1. Separate facilities shall not be required for dwelling units and sleeping units.
2. In structures or tenant spaces where combined employee and public toilet facilities are provided in accordance with Section 403.3, separate facilities shall not be required where the total number of employees, customers, patrons and visitors is 30 or fewer.
3.In structures or tenant spaces where required toilet facilities for only employee use are provided in accordance with Section 403.3, separate facilities shall not be required where the total number of employees is 30 or fewer.
4. In structures or tenant spaces where required toilet facilities for only public use are provided in accordance with Section 403.3, separate facilities shall not be required where the total number of customers, patrons and visitors is 30 or fewer.
*403.2.1 Single-occupant toilet rooms. All single-occupant toilet rooms shall be made available for use by persons of any sex. Existing toilet rooms shall comply with this section by no later than January 1, 2017. Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect or alter the number of toilet rooms in a building otherwise required pursuant to this code or where applicable the 1968 Building Code.
Exception: Where egress from a single-occupant toilet room is through a room permissibly restricted by sex.
Blind Melon
not sure what you are saying max.
Visited the site but am not sure if there is a good design that accepts everyone without forgoing urinals?
Tokyo is planning to make the olympics in 2020 gender neutral when it comes to toilets. I would like to believe it is because we dont have the hangups that can pollute american life.
The idea that gender neutrality is dangerous for anyone but those who are different is so ridiculous. I cant help but think the problem is with people who dont know what to do with their sexual curiosity and manage it be hurting other people. For those who are brave enough to live according to their true selves it seems such a poor reward. LGBTQ should be celebrated not punished.
Holy Heck this whole bathroom argument is moot. Just pee where you want! I say we get everyone on the baseball stadium men's room trough-style system... just one big sluice we all squat over when nature calls.
This is another hot button issue designed to get people arguing about anything besides our shrinking incomes and eroding rights.
Architects do not need to publish work about peeing.
Let's make two categories of bathrooms: perverts and non-perverts.
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