Info︎

The House of Butter

Chicago, Illinois
Spring 2021, Columbia GSAPP

Critic: Ife Salema Vanable, Old Hand + Amanda Williams, Amanda Williams Studio

The intersectional Black and Queer identity continues to face systemic violence and discrimination today. One such system of violence is the disproportionate risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. There are current federal programs that work to address these disparities, however, when one begins to plot these grantees on a map, a pattern begins to emerge where more resources are allocated to mainly white populations.

Because of these histories of exclusion, the Black and Queer community has taken it upon themselves to build their own systems of care from the ground up. One such example is the birth of house culture within the ballroom scene. House culture is organized around two interdependent features: the anchoring family-like structures, called houses, and the competitive performances of gender and sexuality, dance and fashion that houses walk (participate) in. These non-heteropatriarchal families work to offer systems of kinship, support, space, and care; and become safe havens for queer youth.

The House of Butter walks in three categories: werk (work), live, and play. A discrete entry on the ground level leads to a central assembly poised to hold events such as a ball, and a bathhouse below grade for individuals to explore their sexuality safely. Space for community-based organizations line the front facade, providing a buffer from the clandestine and private activities held inside. The upper three levels are villas for the constructed families housed on-site. The enfilade is deployed as a method of flexible unit growth and organization for non-conforming family arrangements.

By granting the historic Schulze Baking Company Plant to 'The House of Butter’ and compensating them for their work through the re-appropriation of existing federal funds, the state can leverage and expand the House culture’s existing human and social capital within the Black and Queer collective in order to establish a new system of care, protection, kinship, and space for Black and Queer youth fighting HIV/AIDS in the South Side of Chicago.