The Ol’factory

Jien Lim.
Tutors: Rory Kofoed, Liz Tajhana.

Heterotopia is a concept introduced by Michel Foucault to describe “other” places that coexists with the real; spaces that are incompatible, that mirrors, contradicts, or transform according to time and place. The idea of heterotopology introduces a way of reading and diversifying space within the urban context. It is used as a lens to identify places or institutes of pleasure as counter sites birthed from desires. In the context of Auckland, the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 brought in new sex establishments which were previously under the guise of massage parlours. The decriminalization of the sex trade becomes a commodity and a necessity of a functional society. It becomes a place to remove oneself from conformity and allow for momentary escape to satiate a temperamental desire.

My project looks to address these temperamental desires in a way that brings the relationship of prostitution and the city to light. The role of heterotopia becomes a design methodology to introduce alterity as a device for exposure. Through a variation of thresholds between different subjective and objective, private and public realms: the coexistence of work and pleasure becomes exclusive.