Denner Fluid

Bad Girls by Camila Sosa Villada (2019) narrates her life as a young trans woman and sex worker in Córdoba in the 2000s. The novel explores reproduction, care, and community themes. Camila’s childhood home fails as a nuclear family setting, leading her to find solace in the Pink House – a vital space for collective reproductive labour and community gatherings.

Conservatism is pronounced in Zürich. However, certain institutions such as the Trans Safety Emergency Fund (TSEF), Checkpoint Zürich, and Regenbogenhaus provide support for marginalised communities, including those outside the cisgender paradigm. The TSEF, notably, aims to cover basic living costs, medical bills, and facilitate the relocation of trans individuals to safer environments. The fund is supported by the voguing house of B. Poderosa, whose events act as fundraisers. However, lacking a physical space limits the TSEF’s potential.

​​In Schwamendingen, an abandoned Denner building is envisioned as a multi-purpose extension to the network of trans-friendly spaces in Zürich, complementing existing institutions. It will offer housing for non-cisgender individuals, alongside spaces for collective labour and events. On the second floor, private facilities and unnecessary partitions are reconsidered, making way for shared spaces. Ten rooms and four shared bathrooms are introduced, all varying in size, with larger rooms serving as platforms for shared programmes. The strategy is similar on the first floor. The most visible intervention is the entrance. We propose something the canon would not describe as an “entrance”, but more as an amorphous threshold, a true room in itself; somewhere to get ready, dress up, and go out into the world. This wide threshold is a celebration of that moment, filled with clothes and all kinds of items needed to prepare to go out. The ground floor is mostly kept as it is. It already is an ideal canvas for public events, distinguished by its high ceiling and glazed façade.

The resulting project is hybrid, refusing categorisations but instead embracing a liminal attitude flexible enough to engage with the multifaceted situation. At its core, it is an acceptance of canonical disharmony, sprouting through the cracks of the once-shining façade of modernity. It is no longer about the object itself, but about how a building can function as an infrastructure to open up narratives and serve as a material case study to be used as an argument in contemporary discussions.

Project by: Anna Ozhiganova, Armand Zanota, Luce Salvadé

Teaching team: Anna Puigjaner, Jo Baan, Lisa Maillard, Luis Úrculo, Pol Esteve Castelló, He Shen

Design Studio: Autumn 2023