{"product_id":"the-house-is-not-a-prison-on-the-queerness-of-architecture","title":"The House Is (Not) a Prison: On the Queerness of Architecture","description":"\u003cdiv data-product-title=\"\" data-section=\"template--25251980706171__main-header\" data-url=\"\/products\/the-short-story-of-queer-art\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"product__title h1\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe House Is (Not) a Prison: On the Queerness of Architecture\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExplores the relationship between architecture and queerness in modernity.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere is sexuality, especially queer sexuality, in architecture? \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe House Is (Not) a Prison\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e approaches this question from a radically new position, looking not for a theory of queer architecture, but rather for a queer theory of architecture. Starting from a reconsideration of the foundational principles of architecture, Colin Ripley demonstrates how the division of space steals land from the commons and forces separations and categories. In the process, queerness is created as an indispensable outside to architecture’s disciplinary interior.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTracing the evolution of architecture from the late Enlightenment to the postwar twentieth century, Ripley shows how distinctions between the prison and the domestic home began to collapse in nineteenth-century initiatives to rehabilitate the criminalized and blurred even further with the popularization of glass and concrete in the modernist cell. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe examines sites such as Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, Guillaume-Abel Blouet’s Mettray penal colony, Fontevrault prison, Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, Philip Johnson’s Glass House, and the architecture of North American suburbs to better understand how structures both facilitate and regulate queer sexuality. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA parallel text in the endnotes connects Jean Genet’s prison-set writings to buttress the relationship between architectural features and queerness. A provocative and surprising work, with a foreword by Slavoj Zizek, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe House Is (Not) a Prison\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e advances understandings of queer space.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Colin Ripley challenges us with an occassionally brilliant and ocassionally puerile book. In fluid, well-written, and witty text, Ripley demonstrates, as he puts it, how architecture is a 'reification' and direct realization of many of the laws, languages, and other codes of an abstract nature that define and imprison us. \u003c\/em\u003eThe House Is (Not) a Prison\u003cem\u003e makes a major contribution to both the fields of queer studies and to that of architecture.\" - Aaron Betsky, visiting professor, Michael Graves School of Public Architecture at Kean University\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003eSpecifications: \u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eBy \u003cspan\u003eColin Ripley \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eISBN: \u003cspan\u003e9781988111612\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003ePublished: Nov. 15, 2025 by Concordia University Press\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-ansi-language: FR;\" lang=\"FR\"\u003ePages: 368, Paperback\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-ansi-language: FR;\" lang=\"FR\"\u003eDimensions: \u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 6 x 1 x 8 inches\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eWeight: 1.7 lbs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003eAbout the Author:\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-cardui-content a-cardui-uninitialized _about-the-author-card_carouselItemStyles_peekableContent__hWM3i\" data-a-max-height=\"80\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eColin Ripley\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is an architect and a professor in the School of Interior Design at Toronto Metropolitan University.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Ingram","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":66802841944109,"sku":null,"price":44.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1160\/7368\/files\/9781988111612.jpg?v=1780349087","url":"https:\/\/designshop.aia.org\/products\/the-house-is-not-a-prison-on-the-queerness-of-architecture","provider":"AIA Design Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}