Queering the Archive: Reactivating Queer Memory in Halifax

Abstract

Queer spaces—non-heteronormative venues for gathering, entertainment, and community housing—have historically been marginalized, resulting in their often-temporary nature and the erosion of collective queer memory as these physical sites vanish. By adaptively reusing a local site as a queer archive, this thesis proposes to reactivate collective queer memory in Halifax, challenging the erasure of queer histories from the city’s built environment. Employing queering as a design method, the project reimagines a building not as a static object, but as a dynamic process of becoming. The design intervention draws inspiration from the process of queer self-actualization, using it as a metaphor to guide architectural transformation. By examining local queer histories alongside theories of queer space, adaptive reuse, and memory, this project proposes a queer archive with several supporting programs, including a queer bar, archivist residence, and crafting space located in Halifax’s historically queer North End.