SAFE SPACE

Oslo (Norway), 2020–2021
With Armelle Breuil

Safe Space is a critical dialogue platform that investigates the plural meanings of diversity and representation in architecture in Norway, with a view to advocate for more equitable architectural education and practice. Safe Space takes the form of a residency/exhibition, a podcast, and a zine series. This is a project by Safe Space Collective—an Oslo-based French-Vietnamese queer collective founded in August 2020 by Bui Quy Son, Paul-Antoine Lucas and Armelle Breuil—in collaboration with ROM for kunst og arkitektur.

Safe Space is the fruit of a collaborative process blending conversations, texts and illustrations from more than 50 contributors. The collective has had the pleasure to curate and moderate exchanges between architects, designers, scholars, writers, artists, human geographers, students and educators about topics ranging from representation of minoritized groups in the field, to housing discrimination, environmental injustice and queer architectural practices. This was made possible with the generous support of The Arts Council Norway (Kulturrådet), The Fritt Ord Foundation, The Art of Balance (Balansekunst), The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), Architectopia, Borhaven Arkitekter, Hallstein, and many crowdfunders.
‍
The Safe Space Podcast is available on all podcast platforms. The Safe Space Zine was released at ROM for kunst og arkitektur on October 29, 2021, and now exists for open-source consultation.