The Threshold Between Transed and Trans Space
Can architecture connect, celebrate and empower transgender lives?
On Site
The criteria for choosing a site were:
History
Private,
Public &
Well connected.
Because of this I specified 6 sites in Manchester which hold some relevance to LGBT History.
From these I chose site 4:
Unlike the sites on canal Street (highlighted in green) it is not surrounded by bars and extremely exposed, however it is well connected with bus routes running past it and two major stations within a 10 minute walk.
It is both public and private with an active street frontage but a large private area behind which is sheltered from view by the railway track.
A key consideration for the site is the surrounding development at 60 Charles Street and Circle Square. 60 Charles Street is 17 Stories tall and the tallest building in the Circle Square development is 36 stories.
This is important, not just because it casts large amounts of shadow over the site. It also will bring increased footfall to the area and primarily, both are very gendered developments, the tall buildings bring to mind the 'masculine realm of the city' discussed in part I.
Gendered Surrounding Architecture
The Gender Calculator
Hannah Rozenberg has developed a digital tool that calculates the underlying gender bias in English architectural terms, to help create more gender-neutral environments.
Find the calculator at: http://building-without-bias.co.uk/
Find the calculator at: http://building-without-bias.co.uk/
The gender calculator uses news articles calculate words gender biased, however this creates some interesting anomalies. An
example of this is ‘gym’ - a typically masculine space - is calculated as feminine by the calculator due to how women’s bodies and lives are reported by the media. This also results in the feminine words having a stronger bias as masculine is ‘neutral’ in society.
example of this is ‘gym’ - a typically masculine space - is calculated as feminine by the calculator due to how women’s bodies and lives are reported by the media. This also results in the feminine words having a stronger bias as masculine is ‘neutral’ in society.
On Site
Applying some of these descriptive words to the developments around my site can show how they are gendered. In order to break these stereotypes I can try to encourage more neutral words or subvert the gendered ones so the are reconsidered
THE BUILDING PROGRAMME
Transed Space
Trans Space
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SOLUTION
When trying to put the building programme on site the problem of size became quickly obvious. The site is 112m wide and the building programme did not take enough space to make an impact to the city.
The decision was made to prioritise the street facing area of the site, this afforded the opportunity to respond to the height of the surround development and subvert the gendered architecture.
DEVELOPING A VERTICAL SEQUENCE OF SPACE
On Site
Hannah Rozenberg has developed a digital tool that calculates the underlying gender bias in English architectural terms, to help create more gender-neutral environments.
Find the calculator at: http://building-without-bias.co.uk/
Find the calculator at: http://building-without-bias.co.uk/
STRUCTURE
Structural Frame
To ensure the design would stand whilst maintaining its flexibility and energy I chose a steel structural grid. This means the building can adapt and respond to it's political climate because, as queer theory dictates, what is normal is constantly fluctuating.
The grid system also offers support to the multiple staircases and routes past and through the building which create subtle anonymity.
It means the building does not become monolithic, helping it stay and the grain of uses, developed through the sequence of space remains well distributed.
Graphic Identity
The scheme is made up of two main programmatic areas which do fundamentally different jobs but work together in this building to create a safe and celebratory zone of the city.
To do this I think it is important that the use of the space is immediately apparent. The first attempt to understand the visual aesthetic of the building came with the collage development. Further interrogation of this helps to understand how proportional form, Iconography and materiality or lighting can be used to understand function.
Aesthetic can be used to easily identify a typology even when the building form is misleading.
