New Standards - Queerness

New Standards will identify and confront some of the barriers to architecture, its education and practice, and consider how these can be overcome to embrace wider forms of creativity. Each event in the series will address the idea of comfort to challenge the idea of ‘standards’ as a bare minimum or one-size-fits-all approach. Together, we will question how we might better provide comfort in all its nuanced forms.

New Standards: New Stories

Queerness questions standardisation, yet in architecture schools, standardisation continues to constrain queerness. So, to learn from the storytelling practice at the heart of queer record-keeping, we say instead of New Standards, let’s listen to New Stories.

In the fifth event of the New Standards series, Queer Aided Design, a platform that supports queer architecture students and space makers, will host a workshop. Exploring shared and plural sensibilities, this workshop will centre the exchange of personal stories of queer spaces and space making within and outside of architecture schools. Through sharing these stories, the hope is to create a space of support and solidarity; one that will challenge architectural education and its standards. Through the connection of students, space makers, architects, academics and assorted friends in this space, the workshop seeks to strengthen the networks of support for queer architecture students.

Queer Aided Design invites you, your stories, your subversion, your power, your joy, your questions and your friends to join them for this collection, conversation and catharsis.

The workshop will be hosted by Mary Holmes (she/her) and Thomas Phillips (he/him) of Queer Aided Design. Stories will be shared by Regner Ramos about Cüirtopia, a mapping project that reimagines how we register, represent, and document queer spaces from within the Caribbean, Lo Marshall who will talk about their research and approach to communicating queer spaces across different contexts, and Adam Nathaniel Furman who will reflect on their position within architectural education both as a student and tutor.

Regner Ramos (he/him) is tenured Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Puerto Rico. He researches the LGBTQ+ community in Puerto Rico, searching for ways to include queer spaces into the landscape of contemporary Puerto Rican architectural discourse. Ramos’s art-based research practice unfolds through a variety of methods: performative writing, storytelling, drawings, video/film, and making. His two-year research project “Cüirtopia” was funded by the FIPI Award (2020-2022), and his first book, co-edited with Sharif Mowlabocus is called Queer Sites in Global Contexts (Routledge 2020).

Lo Marshall (they/them) is a Senior Research Fellow and Tutor at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, UCL, where their research and teaching focuses upon LGBTQI+ people, communities, and spaces. Beyond academia, Lo was named an ‘emerging voice in architecture’ as part the London Festival of Architecture in 2020 and has contributed to exhibitions on nightlife at Whitechapel Gallery (2019) and The Design Museum (2020-21).

Adam Nathaniel Furman (they/them) is a British artist & designer of Argentine & Japanese heritage based in London. Trained in architecture, Adam's atelier works in spatial design and art of all scales from video and prints to large public artworks, architecturally integrated ornament, as well as products, furniture, interiors, publishing and academia.

The conversation will take place around a communal table to facilitate an open and comfortable discussion between the presenters and attendees. Free food and drink will be available throughout the evening.

This event will have British Sign Language interpretation. Ramps will be in place to enable access to the AA buildings. A quiet room will be available. In order to enable those still vulnerable to Covid-19 to safely attend the event, we encourage everyone attending to wear masks where possible. Please do not attend if you feel unwell and are experiencing any symptoms. The room will be well-ventilated and have areas of distanced seating.

Please get in touch to let us know of any additional access requirements that you might have and how we can best accommodate these. If you are unable to attend physically but would like to participate in the event remotely please email publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk