AIDS, STIGMA AND ARCHITECTURE : ACTION FOR AIDS HQ

Abstract

SUBJECT MATTER This thesis deals with the subject of AIDS and stigma and attempts to search for a bearing in architecture which addresses the problem of stigmatization that people with AIDS (PWAs) suffered. In essence, I have drawn upon Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity by Erving Goffman which states that stigmatized individuals (either discreditable or discredited) manage to avoid and reduce stigma in social settings through their personal control of behavior and 'signs' or 'symbols' about themselves. Yet in an institution setting, because of the institution's singular programmatic contents and the role its plays in society, it 'codifies' the identity of the users and makes the management of stigma by the stigmatized individuals more difficult. In such instances, one can see the possibility of using architecture as an instrument to 'disarm' the institution's codification to assist the stigmatized individual to manage and conceal their stigma. The framework of this thesis is then to investigate how architecture can be r 'instrumentalised' to assist the stigmatized individuals to manage and conceal their stigma in an institution setting. PROGRAMME The project is a proposal for the Action for AIDS HQ (Afa HQ) to be located besides Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre off Orchard Road. Afa is a nongovernmental organisation set up to promote AIDS education and welfare support for AIDS patients and preventing the discrimination of PW As. It has 2 basic aims: - To educate the general public about AIDS - To provide anonymous counselling and testing and treatment for HIV infected These 2 aims are at times conflicting. On the one hand, Afa is promoting the education of the general public and on the other hand, it wanted to provide 'anonymity' to the HIV infected or the public going for test in the same building. Unlike Western countries where most afflicted have by now able to 'come out' of the closet and moved into fighting for equal representation, in Singapore today, there is no one publicly 'coming out' as being HIV positive. HIV positive and/or negative people are governed by fear of stigmatisation and rejection (See Appendix Ill). It will be wrong to compare the Western countries with us. AIDS has become part of their daily lives. They have already experience all that we are going through now. (See Appendix IV) Hence this project attempts to explore the notion of architecture as an instrument in 'masking' the identity of the users in building to assist the HIV infected or the public going for test to manage and conceal their stigma.