*Queer Aided Design*
001 : University of Cambridge
On the 14th of May 2022, QAD held its first workshop (!) It was an incredible, chaotic day that celebrated queer design work, research and space-making. The talks from the event can be found below and on Youtube.
There were also two panel conversations that were not recorded. The first was a student panel where Kleanthis Kyriakou, Thomas Philips, Bryan Ho, Sebastian Buser and Mary Homes shared their design projects, past and present. You can find some of these projects here. The second was a panel on queer futurity that brought together Lip from London’s LGBTQ+ community centre, Nadine Noor Ahmad from Pxssy Palace and Alim Kheraj and Tim Boddy, co-hosts of the Queer Spaces Podcast.
The workshop was generously funded by the University of Cambridge’s Architecture Department and organised by Mary Holmes and Isaac Simmonds-Douglas.
Martha Summers:
(queer) identity and community in 4 projects
Martha Summers (she/her) is an Architect, Artist, and Leatherworker living and working in London. Key themes in her artistic and architectural practice include queer domesticity, self-fashioning and butch identity.
In this talk, Martha reflects on 4 of her design projects including her work for the London LGBT+ Community Centre and the 'Out and About!' exhibition held at the Barbican's Curve Gallery.
Dr Dhiren Borisa:
Neither ‘here’ nor ‘there’: geographies of south Asian queerness in the UK
Dr. Dhiren Borisa (he/him) is a Dalit queer activist, poet, and an urban sexual geographer, and is currently employed as Assistant Professor at Jindal Global Law school, India.
In this talk, Dhiren reflects on his own personal experience to frame his research into South Asian Queer Sociality and Survival in the UK.
Dr Joshua Mardell:
Queer Spaces- an atlas of LGBTQIA+ places and stories
Dr Joshua Mardell (he/him) is an architectural historian currently teaching at the Royal College of Art. His work is continually informed by queerness as a sensibility, he centres particularly on historiographical reflection, validating the missing sections of architectural history.
In this talk, Joshua reflects on his recent book Queer Spaces : an atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories which was published early in 2022 by the RIBA.