Archinect - Features 2024-12-20T16:50:09-05:00 https://archinect.com/features/article/148988000/transparent-motives-the-ins-and-outs-of-sex-specific-architecture Transparent Motives: the ins and outs of sex-specific architecture Julia Ingalls 2016-04-15T08:20:00-04:00 >2021-04-28T10:16:05-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/tg/tgoq9nd1ybtjlqhb.png?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>If sex is the ultimate form of openness, then the architecture designed specifically to facilitate it could, up until recently anyway, be described as opaque. Even those more flagrant hot spots, like Emperor Nero&rsquo;s Domus Aurea or Japan&rsquo;s ubiquitous <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/50672/tmn-on-love-hotels" target="_blank">love hotels</a>, tended to be built to obscure their purpose, at least from the outside. Indeed, it is only within the last few decades that the notion of sex as an activity that could be displayed, or at least not obscured, has come into a more public architectural vogue. Transparency, in its <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/127173703/welcome-to-the-jungle-sou-fujimoto-lectures-on-applying-natural-infrastructure-to-urban-design" target="_blank">boundary blurring form</a>, is a defining characteristic of architecture for sex.&nbsp;</p>