Introduction: Narratives, Rituals & a Queer Clubhouse

INTRODUCTION

I remember it like it was yesterday. I had been looking forward to that day. We had to move everything inside my mom and dad’s small lounge, all the chairs, tables and decorations because it was raining cats and dogs outside. But that didn’t stop the excitement running through my body, my day had come, finally. My friends and family came over ukuzobhiyozela usuku lwami lokuzalwa. Its tradition of my family as part of the gifts for a 21st birthday to receive amongst the gifts a new double bed complete with brand new bedding and your own bedroom. Another significant gift is the infamous key, a symbol to represent your freedom. It was a festive day filled with food, laughter, speeches, dances and pride. My little sister was 14 then. I looked at her and wondered just how big her umemulo would be? Where would it be held, I mean our house was way too small to host that big celebration. We would have to put up the tent in the street, invite all the neighbours, it would probably be filled with more ritual, more celebration and bigger gifts? Unfortunately it wasn’t all that. It was a small intimate gathering of close friends and family at a restaurant… nothing grand, she had just had a baby boy…

Architecture is a unique art, because it is rooted in the rituals of everyday and sometimes ceremonial life. Those rituals are framed and defined in space by the buildings which we inhabit. Whether designed to house a grand ceremony or provide shelter for a daily meal, all buildings coordinate and consolidate social relations by giving orientation and focus to the spatial practices of those who use them.

Working in the context of Covid-19 pandemic affords us the opportunity to explore and critically reimagine our immediate contexts, ourselves, our homes and our public spaces. This year, these are the primary sites of our inquiries.

In first semster, the explorations centre around narratives, rituals and architecture. Our questions are about the self in public space. They trouble our understandings of programme and typology in the process of space making. While in the second semester our enquiries opens up issues of identity, politics and difference within Johannesburg. using queerness as a lense from which to make sense of the city.