TOILET A Queer Dimension

Abstract

This research reframes public toilets as a critical lens to examine the built environment beyond a purely functional perspective. Conceived as architectural dispositifs shaped by normative, political, and cultural intentions, these spaces reveal mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion that regulate access, orient behaviours, and contribute to identity construction. The study investigates how sanitary architectures have historically participated in the normalization of bodies and the consolidation of binary gender frameworks, in dialogue with queer theory. The concept of trajectory is adopted as an analytical tool to interpret space as a relational and processual construct, emerging from interactions between spatial configurations, embodied practices, and power structures. Public toilets thus emerge as contested sites where issues of gender, sexuality, and accessibility are continuously negotiated. Through case studies and an interdisciplinary approach, the research advocates for integrating queer perspectives into architectural practice, reimagining these spaces as laboratories of inclusion and transformation within the public realm.

Keywords: toilet, bathroom, queer, inclusion, LGBTQIA+