A space for sex work

An intersectional feminist approach to brothels in the context of decriminalisation

Master thesis (2023)

Authors

I. Feria Prados Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

R.A. Gorny Theory, Territories & Transitions - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 2)
M.G. Vink Public Building and Housing Design (supervisor 1)
J.A. van de Voort Architectural Technology - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 2)
E. Louw Urban Development Management - Architecture and the Built Environment (coach)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment
Copyright: © 2023 Irene Feria Prados
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Published Date

19-01-2023

Language

English

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

This project deals with spaces for a historically neglected collective: sex workers. It aims to destigmatize the practice by representing the workers and the material conditions that determine their safety and well-being every day, of which architecture is part.
Articulated from an intersectional feminist point of view, the research evaluates how the design of these spaces has been and continues to be a technology to control the workers. At the same time, it visualizes the workers and how they construct processes of emancipation within their (legally and spatially) subjugated position.
The design offers a working space that houses these emancipatory practices, in the context of the recent decriminalisation of sex work in Belgium. In order to do so, it draws from feminist and queer theories to construct an understanding of space that materializes the emancipation from the scale of the neighbourhood and urban block, until the detailing and use of material.