AUSABE: LGBTQIA+ CELEBRATION RAINBOW NAVIGATING THROUGH THE GENDER BINARY:

L GBTQIA+ CELEBRATION RAINBO W AUS ABE Honour ing Dr George Ian Ogilvie Duncan (1930 –1 9 7 2 )

The Design Team. Left to right: Dylan Fuller, Whitney Fei Yang Huang, Miah Thorpe, Quincy Nguyen, Katherine Queen, and Fleur Liveris;

Not pictured: Bea Maramba, Brendan Nguyen, David William Nott and Kristina Lee.

Words and photos by the Adelaide University Society of Architecture and Built Environment (AUSABE) Interview by Ngoc Lan Tran (She/Her)

In late October 2021, the Adelaide University Society of Architecture and Built Environment (AUSABE) was engaged by The University of Adelaide Events team to create a rainbow structure honouring Dr George Ian Ogilvie Duncan. AUSABE’s Design Team was made up of nine Bachelor and Master of Architecture students and one Civil and Architectural Engineering student. They are Dylan Fuller, Whitney Fei Yang Huang, Kristina Lee, Fleur Liveris, Jeriza Beatrice Maramba, Brendan Nguyen, Quincy Nguyen, David William Nott, Katherine Queen, and Miah Thorpe. Over the course of the summer holidays, these passionate students had dedicated over 100 hours of their time to this project which created a statement of pride and celebration on the university campus.

The LGBTQIA+ Celebration Rainbow, a 24m long x 10m high structure, was unveiled in March of 2022 on the University grounds near the Cloisters and facing the Torrens River. Soon after the reveal, a walk in solidarity to the Festival Centre was held to commemorate Dr Duncan, led by Adelaide’s Queen of the Walk Gertrude Glossip who is renowned for her educational rainbow walk of queer history at the Feast Festival. The event concluded with a preview performance of a new oratorio at the Dunstan Playhouse, Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan, as part of the Adelaide Festival.

Born in London and lived in Melbourne, Dr George Ian Ogilvie Duncan was a law lecturer at the University of Adelaide. After earning a doctorate at Cambridge University, in 1972, he returned to Australia to take up a lectureship of law at the University. Six weeks after his arrival, he lost his life after being thrown into the River Torrens by a group of men believed to be police officers. It was a hate crime that shocked the nation. Almost immediately, Dr Duncan’s death triggered the very first attempt in Australia and in any country in the Anglosphere to decriminalise homosexual acts between consenting adults. Local historian Tim Reeves calls this a “watershed” moment.

Every year, University of Adelaide students hold a memorial service to mourn, commemorate, and honour Dr Duncan. The service is a reminder that Dr Duncan never intended to be a martyr, that his only crime was existing. His death indeed was the catalyst for a positive change that impacted countless queer lives, but there is a long way to go to achieve full equality for the LGBTQIA+ community. This year, to mark the 50th anniversary of his death, AUSABE continues the tradition of honouring Dr Duncan and the celebration of queer lives with their project of architecture. As a society they write: “Queer liberation is built on the foundations laid by those who have come before us. As we continue to fight for equality and unity, remembering their struggles, triumphs, and legacies is crucial to building a strong and HOW DID THIS PROJECT COME ABOUT? Katherine Queen (she/her), President: Well, we were approached as a society by one of our university lectures, who in turn was approached by the Events team at the University. From there, we had an initial meeting with the University team before proposing the project to our committee, who were really excited to be on board.

Myself and Fleur Liveris, who was our Vice President at the time, ran the project a little bit like an intensive design studio. We needed to get a lot of this work done by early to midDecember of 2021 as the project had some really tight deadlines. We initially started out with a concept design and from there, we did all of the work ourselves with guidance from tutors and the industry team.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS PROJECT AS A STUDENT SOCIETY? Katherine: AUSABE was in its infancy in 2021, and in some ways still is, so to be given this great opportunity within our first years really means the world. The project is incredibly important for our members and for what we stand for. We felt really honoured and very proud of what the project ended up as, especially as some members involved are either a part of LGBTQIA+ or have important connections to the community. We were able to meet so many integral people within the story of Dr Duncan, as well as those who are still passionate about it and still fighting for justice. We’re looking forward and ahead. This is an important part of university history and really puts, not only our state, but our country in the spotlight of LGBTQIA+ rights movement. It is a progressive change for the future, and we’re happy we’re a part of that change.

I personally feel proud not only as a society but as an individual. I am simply touched. I cried so heavily during the Watershed performance, it really impacted me and I hope that we celebrate the future of the LGBTQIA+ community and move forward to even more amazing things.

LEFT - A VISUAL RENDERING

BELOW - REALITY

WHAT WAS THE DESIGN PROCESS BEHIND THE LGBTQIA+ CELEBRATION RAINBOW?

Dylan Fuller (he/him), Treasurer:

The rainbow flag is universally the most recognisable symbol of the LGBTQIA+ community, so from this, the projects’ genesis was derived. The rainbow was the focal aspect in unifying the design, enveloping the primary structure with a tensile helix oriented rainbow. Associating with this idea is a conceptualisation journey conforming to a linear progression of research, extrapolation, experimentation, storytelling, and actualisation.

The extrapolation of a pride symbol is representative of self-identity. The triangle was formalised as dichroic triangle panels; occupants of the negative space in between the truss. The structure produces refractive light rays throughout different times of day, dimensionalising the space as purposeful. This layering of space utilising dichroic triangles characterised as a medium, provides dimension to the storytelling of this project, reflecting both the murder of Dr Duncan and the law reform for homosexuality that followed. The transparency of the dichroic triangle seeks to amplify the experience. Upon the base of the installation, green carnations punctuate the jarring triangles, symbols of queer pride.

WHEN WE THINK ABOUT QUEER SPACE, WE MAY FIRST BE DRAWN TO THE METAPHORS OF THE CLOSET AND THE WASHROOM - ALWAYS PRIVATE, INTERIOR, AND AT THE EDGE. CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE OF EXPLORING QUEER SPACES AND STORIES, PARTICULARLY DR DUNCAN’S, THAT THIS PROJECT OFFERS? Mia Thorpe (she/her): To quote Bernard Tschumi, “Architecture [can] only be political in relation to events.” Quite poignantly so, architecture presented at this Memorial for Dr. Duncan actively challenges the dichotomy of queer spaces. At an observable level, it’s sitting on the highly pedestrianised North Terrace and university grounds, thus proudly celebrating the space. But on a deeper level, the fact that the Celebration Rainbow’s location intentionally faces the Torrens bridge where the queer community had formerly met in the last century, at night, discretely, privately, tragically unsafe;

WHAT DOES THE LGBTQIA+ CELEBRATION RAINBOW MEAN TO YOU? AUSABE: We think of this project as a symbol of our much-needed development in the progression of queer rights. The rainbow installation encapsulates the essence of the LGBTQIA+ community—unity, resilience, and strength. It is an icon for this generation, standing tall as a physical manifestation of the queer community’s inalienable right to freedom of identity and expression.