Homosexuality still is a taboo subject in architectural history. When historical architectural
personalities have lived outside the heterosexual norm their private lives are readily
shrouded in mysterious obscurity. As long as penal laws endured social existence was
constantly threatened and hiding was a necessity. Defensive strategies were needed to protect
themselves. To track down these outsiders of the past historical sources must be read queerly.
Wolfgang Voigt until 2015 deputy director at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in
Frankfurt Main and architectural historian Uwe Bresan set out on their search and present the
results of their research in this book. It brings together 41 portraits from the 18th to the
20th century in North America Europe and Palestine. The book reveals architects from the
Baroque era to the modern age surprising biographies admirable houses and not infrequently
intelligently designed refuges with which the protagonists protected their private lives.
