Archinect - News

The Crumple and the Scrape: Two Archi-Textures in the Mode of Queer Gender

2020-03-05T20:59:00-05:00

Texture is the condition of possibility through which our bodies meet environments; like gender in its relationality, texture is palpable only in becoming. So did the blue carpet in my childhood bedroom enmesh gender between my toes? And if we alter texture — including how we talk about it — might we transform gender in both minute and brash ways?

Whether or not they realize it, architecture critics generally build a body into their writings. And we must allow ourselves, and others, to write bodies other than cis, straight, white, able ones into the affect of our analyses. Changing words — say, crafting new architectural metaphors for trans and queer embodiments — can alter our perceptions of bodies and buildings alike.

Lucas Crawford, the latest recipient of the Arcus/Places Prize for innovative public scholarship on gender, sexuality, and the built environment, explores how the language of architectural criticism influences the ways that we discuss the design of built space.

The Arcus/Places Prize is an ongoing collaboration between Places Journal and the Diversity Platforms Committee of the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley.

Cuba to bring back hourly rental "love hotels"

2017-07-05T14:05:00-04:00

The authorities in the Cuban capital, Havana, say they are restoring a network of hotels where rooms are rented by the hour to lovers. State-run "posadas", or love motels, disappeared during Cuba's economic crisis in the 1990s, when they became hurricane shelters. Private householders filled the gap in the market, but at exorbitant prices. Officials say the posadas will be cheaper and will help end the practice of love-making in Havana's open spaces.

Banal Sex Mansion: talking about sex and architecture with Aaron Betsky, on Archinect Sessions #62

2016-04-28T13:56:00-04:00

This week we’re joined by special guest co-host Aaron Betsky, author of Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire and Building Sex: Men, Women, Architecture & the Construction of Sexuality. As a strong presence in the architectural discourse of gender and sexuality since the 1990s, Betsky discusses with us a few of our recent Features published under April's special editorial theme, Sex, including:

Betsky was last on the podcast in his current professional capacity as the dean at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture at Taliesin, to talk about the school's then-uncertain future. You can li...

Open Call for Submissions: Sex Aware Design

2016-04-13T15:32:00-04:00

With April comes springtime, and a proliferation of reproduction symbols laden with the sticky pollen of the universal allergen – sex. We're devoting our next editorial issue on Archinect to themes of sex and sexuality in architecture, and we want you to submit (to our open call).

Effective immediately, we're accepting written and design work under the following guidelines:

》EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS: Architecture "Penthouse" Letters
A skyscraper is never just a skyscraper – architecture, in its lines and curves, interiors and textures, is a sensual object. Its space and substance are all around us, and we spend our lives in a passionate, long-lasting relationship with it. Now, we want to hear how that admiration, devotion, fantasy, fetish, straight-up procreation – or whatever gets you going – intertwines with architecture. However architecture and sex become one in the same, send us your tales of architecture erotica.

》PROJECT SUBMISSIONS: Sex Aware Design
We're looking for projects that w...