In Search of Queer Space:

A Floating Theater inspired by Cherry Grove

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Location: Chelsea Piers, New York, U.S.

Type: Graduate Thesis, The Cooper Union

Year: 2020

Advisor: Steven Hillyer

Professors: Anthony Vidler, Nora Akawi 

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Cherry Grove is located on Fire Island, a thin Atlantic Ocean barrier island off the southern coast of Long Island, New York. The Grove is America's first gay and lesbian town in the United States, renowned historically and culturally as a one-of-a-kind place for the LGBTQ+ community. It has been a sanctuary space for the queer community even before the Stonewall era.

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This project proposes a floating theater for altering the perceptions of conservative people and places where the queer community is not welcomed; utilizing performance as a means of fostering acceptance. The idea of floating a space comes from the Grove's traditions and spirit. In the history of performance spaces and theaters, architects have been challenging the spatial relationship between performers and audiences. The border between subject and object has been blurred, making spaces more non-proscenium. Additionally, if a theater is mobile, it becomes more meaningful in terms of serving diverse audiences in different places. 

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In this project, I situate my position as an architectural storyteller, navigating queer aesthetic, which is undefinable, non-categorized. Hand drawings represent narratives, their emotion, and my personal mental landscape in the spirit of Cherry Grove. Ultimately, through the peculiar collages, I propose a rhapsody of the next queer performance space.   

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