Theatres, Nightclubs, and Chosen Homes: How Design Connects Communities
30/06/25
The design and construction of spaces for gathering is an important part of developing community. Charcoalblue is honored to have the privilege of working with architects, developers, and clients to create spaces that welcome and include all. As we gather in many of the cities in which we live and work to celebrate LGBTQIA+¹ Pride this month, we take a look at how space can catalyse community building, provide safety to marginalized groups, and serve as chosen homes for those whose homes of origin do not support them.
As we enter this discussion, it’s important to keep in mind that we are writing from the “western world”, which in recent decades has made enormous strides towards providing equal rights for queer people to express their genders and sexualities publicly. Of the 195 nations on earth, 65 still have legal prohibitions on at least one form of queer expression or activity. Even in the west, the pursuit of queer rights is ongoing, and there are only 38 nations in which homosexual marriage is legal. In many of the nations where both queer activity and marriage is legal, those provisions came about relatively recently. As such, the history of queer spaces begins with secret gathering places - and in many parts of the world, continues this way.
In societies where being queer is not acceptable, clandestine meeting places where queer identities are not persecuted have been critical paths for community building, activism, and socializing free of the stigma of societies that have not been welcoming. Many queer spaces were initially members-only spaces like London’s Caravan Club in the 1930s, the Paradise Garage
in NYC in the 1970s and 1980s, and the legendary Stonewall Inn (the epicenter of the Stonewall uprising, that followed a police raid) traditionally employed bouncers to monitor attendees, blacked out their windows to ensure patrons were not spotted from the street, and generally operated in an atmosphere of secrecy in order to protect their guests.
Stonewall Inn on July 2nd, 1969, one week following the police raid that inspired the Stonewall uprising, often thought of as the beginning of the contemporary queer rights movement and sometimes termed “the first Pride”. Note the blacked-out windows. Photo Credit – Larry Morris/NYT
¹ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Agender/Aromantic – this umbrella term is sometimes written simply as LGBT or LGBT+, but is often listed in expanded form to acknowledge a wider range of identities (e.g. “2-Spirit” for indigenous people with complex gender identities) that are sometimes grouped under the word “queer”. The use of “queer” to refer to anyone who is not a cisgender, heterosexual person began in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a slur, but has been reclaimed by the community as a blanket identifier for anyone who does not identify as cis-het. In this piece we use “queer” as a shorthand for the wide range of identities covered (or omitted) by this acronym.
Twin Peaks Tavern in 2022, photo by Trip Advisor user nandodiver
In 1973, the still-operating Twin Peaks Tavern in San Francisco became possibly the first-ever queer space to remove the black window coverings, and openly display the patrons to the surrounding neighborhood (the Castro district, to this day a queer enclave in the city), marking a step into the light for queer people and queer spaces. Still, there were many years of private clubs, secrecy, and members-only policies ahead.
Theatre has, rather notoriously, been a cultural industry that welcomed and provided a home for queer people for decades if not centuries. However, even in the theatrical world, queerness was often a topic kept essentially secret for when information about an individual’s homosexual practices spread beyond the theatrical world, it was a liability, as in the famous prosecution of Oscar Wilde. Western theatre’s origins in the Greek and Roman dramatic traditions root it in societies where homosexual practice was widely accepted, and queer themes appear in traditional dramatic works. However, some translations were produced in the UK and US during the 19th and 20th centuries that intentionally downplayed or completely erased the queer text or subtext (e.g. in the story of Androcles and Patroclus, which was often rendered as a story of “close friends” in translation). Western theatre, as such, has a complex relationship with queerness.
Theatre Rhinoceros, 2023 – photo: Google Street View
In the 20th century, and especially following the Stonewall uprising, the US and UK began to be home to a number of explicitly queer theatrical productions (e.g. “The Boys in the Band”) and theatre companies. The latter began producing in rented or borrowed venues, and in time many of these companies found, acquired, and/or built their own spaces to explicitly center queer voices. From NYC’s The Other Side of Silence (the US’s longest-running queer theatre company), which was founded by playwright Doric Wilson but who have never had a permanent producing venue, to SF’s Theatre Rhinoceros, who began life in 1977 with a production of one of Wilson’s plays, and now operate their own venue in the Castro, theatre has increasingly provided a home for queer people to express their truths, to connect with one another, and to build community.
Charcoalblue is proud to continue the tradition of designing spaces for community, and we’re excited to be working on projects that center queer voices and culture. The Peoples Theatre Project, a company in NYC dedicated to “ensemble-based, multilingual, and multigenerational programming” and to being “a powerful artistic platform for immigrants and members of the Latine, Black, and Queer communities”. We’ve worked in collaboration with the woman- and immigrant-owned architecture practice WORKac to develop a exciting, flexible, intimate space that will open in NYC in 2026.
Artists’ rendering of Peoples Theatre mainstage – image by WORKac
Whether developing a new nightclub, a theatre, or a community center, Charcoalblue is dedicated to using space as a tool to foster community and promote inclusivity. While the details of a space will vary based on the community it is being designed to serve, we work as committed partners to ensure that no one is excluded from our spaces – and that where queer voices can gather to connect, the acoustics can lift their voices, the technological systems can amplify their messages, and the sightlines will be clear. Our world-class teams of professionals are passionate about ensuring that all voices have space to express their ideas, build their networks, and celebrate together.
We celebrate our global team members, clients, collaborators, and communities in the quest to become ever more inclusive.
Join us in celebrating queer Pride!
Supporting the industry internationally since 2004
