Urban Building: A Journey Through Sound, Heat & Queer Sensuality
Programme
Exploring the boundaries between bathing, dance, and sexual escapism, Jackson Deans presents a work in progress imagining a hybrid typology for the LGBTQ+ community.
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Evidence indicates that the LGBTQ+ population is more likely to experience depression, anxiety, and substance misuse than the majority population. The association between minority sexual orientation and poorer mental health persists despite progressive changes in social attitudes and legal protection. This architectural proposal aims to combat these issues and to help prevent harmful outcomes of the social effects of being queer.
My building centres the intersecting identities between the LGBTQ+ community, people of colour, and womxn. Creating dedicated ‘safe spaces’ for these communities to inhabit and use allows people to not only exist comfortably without judgment and discrimination but to form deeper connections and understanding with one another.
The hybrid typology I have developed incorporates contemporary nightclub spaces into a fabric of the traditional Roman bathhouse. The programme is arranged to allow the user to experience and engage with various levels of physical and sensory intensity through light, sound, and heat as they journey through the building.
Bathing played a major part in ancient Roman society; bathing in Rome was a communal, social experience. This idea is taken forward in my design by using bathing as a means of social interaction. The spaces intend to provide different, perhaps contrasting experiences catered to the desire of the user; a meditative spa, an intense techno nightclub, private darkrooms, and virtually any spacial and experiential variance in between.