Closet Architecture: Reflections on the queer domestic interior

Abstract

In the midst of a cultural moment that has seen a moratorium placed on public space, and a growing sense of contraction and isolationism on a global scale, our attention shifts to the private domestic realm. We zoom in, past grand chambers designed to impress non-existent visitors, and suites structured to create the illusion of order in our otherwise chaotic lives, until we reach that room most synonymous with secrecy, compartmentalization, and shame: the closet.

Closet Architecture traces the architectural, linguistic, and cultural evolution of the closet through time, in order to find new insights into this space of identity, interiority, and isolation. While the closet has become the go-to architectural metaphor for queer shame, it has historically operated as a space of power, knowledge, spirituality, and intimacy. How might a better understanding of closets in a historical context lend us a greater sense of agency as queer people? How can spatial practice help us take back the closet?

Closet Architecture employs an auto-ethnographic approach to research, centering my own lived experience as a queer designer to build broader cultural reflections on solitude and privilege, exclusion and retreat, and shame and empowerment through this most paradigmatic architectural type.