Vocab Lessons: Gaychitecture: Architecture Conceived For the Gay Community

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gay·chi·tec·ture: \ 'ga-k?-?tek-ch?r \ noun

Definition: Architecture conceived and built for the gay community. The term was originally coined in June 2009 by Seattle Weekly reporter Brian Miller, who used it to describe the state "when there's something about a building—or house or architectural icon—that pushes past the utilitarian, but isn't screamingly queer or kitschy."

Controversy: In true post-modern fashion, The Awl reclaimed and reassigned the word today, using it to describe BOOM, a new starchitect-studded gay-friendly desert community outside Palm Springs, Calif.

So which use is currect? The Awl's. It doesn't matter whether a particular building in "takes accepted design idioms then delivers them with an extra raised eyebrow of inflection," as Miller suggests: if it's in no way related to gays or conceived for the gay community—swank mixed-use development with a mist disco, hotel design, or anything else—it's not gaychitecture.

· Pour on the Pride: the 6 Gayest Buildings in Seattle [Seattle Weekly]
· The Future of Gaychitecture [The Awl]
· Gay-Friendly BOOM Brings the Mist Disco Back to Desert Life [Curbed National]
· First-Ever Gay-Branded Hospitality Decor Revealed [Curbed National]

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