Offerings and Inheritances: Reconstructing Family Altars for Queer Vietnamese Kin

My architectural thesis explores the spatial incongruencies of queer, Vietnamese, and diasporic communities living in Canada by reconstructing new ancestral altar practices. Since the influence of patrilineal Confucian ideologies, domestic altars (bàn thờ) have been created to practice ancestor veneration within Vietnamese households across the homeland and the diaspora. However, queer and trans Vietnamese youth are often excluded and displaced from the patriarchal home, as it is assumed that embracing queer identity is an act of dishonouring tradition and lineage. To seek wholeness among displaced familial, sexual and racial identities, I offer this spatial exploration to reconstruct and reimagine queer altar practices. I investigate multiple "sites of exchange" through the design of three altars for three scales of intimacies: bodies, streets and clubs. Through this process, I invite designers and architects to engage in new practices of belonging for our ancestors, kin, and our multi-adjectival selves.