Architecture and sexuality

This exhibition at CCCB, in Barcelona, presents some of the projects that have subverted traditional models and advocated utopias of sexual cohabitation.

“1000m2 of desire. Architecture and sexuality” presents some of the projects that have subverted traditional models and advocated utopias of sexual cohabitation, or private spaces designed solely for pleasure.

Top: Design Studio Chrysalis, Bubble House, Revista Playboy, abril 1972, Playboy Magazine, april 1972, p. 118. © Richard Fish. Left: Paul Delvaux, L’Appel, 1944. Colección Telefónica © Fernando Maquieira

Drawings and architectural models, artworks, installations, films and documentaries, books and other materials invite us to consider how sexualities are constructed in accordance with specific cultural codes subject to norms that govern bodies and discourses, and the nature of the space of desire and pleasure in our society.

Superstudio, Atti Fondamentali. Amore: la Macchina innamoratrice, 1971-73. Archivio Superstudio © Superstudio

The exhibition highlights the way certain forms of resistance to established norms have largely originated from informal architecture and the appropriation of places. It shows how architectural practice has been dominated by men until very recently and, as a result, spaces designed for pleasure have been imagined from male desires and fantasies.

Jeremy Bentham, colour drawing of section of the Panopticon or Inspection House, 1794-95. © Bentham Papers, UCL Library Services, Special Collections


until 19 March 2017
1000m2 of desire. Architecture and sexuality
curated by Adélaïde de Caters and Rosa Ferré
CCCB
Montalegre 5, Barcelona