The Gay Bath-house - a Case Study of a Potential Gay-Bathhouse at Liljeholmsbadet

Abstract: This case study was written to explore the different branches of queer theory and its links to the architecture of bath-houses. This, from both a historicaland a modern-day societal perspective. By implementing researcher Katarina Bonnevier’s queer theory on performativity and cross-cladding, I aim to investigate how the swimming pool and the bath-house can be re-envisioned.Throughout the country, the need for renovating and extending the existing portfolio of swimming pools and bath-house institutions has grown large. Meanwhile, thenumber of queer spaces in the city of Stockholm has over the years diminished. Therefore, I have chosen Liljeholmsbadet at Södermalm, an institution currently facing demolition, as subject of this case study and I propose a reinvention of it into a gay bath-house.Through literary research, observations, and studyvisits to public bath-houses, I will analyse the swimmingpool and what role it has played in society and in the queer community.Subsequently, using Bonnevier’s theoretical framework,I will redesign Liljeholmsbadet and dissect this new gay bath-house’s different components. By “queering” the already-built, this thesis speculates on what lies in the future of the bath-house.This diploma project is not to be viewed as a finished design proposal or an answer to a question, but as a starting point for further discussions.The thesis is split in two parts, a theoretical background as a framework, and a design proposal.