Beverly Engelbrecht

Counter-architectures of sex work. The example of Potsdamer Strasse in West Berlin (1961-1990) (working title)

In a groundbreaking radio lecture in 1966, Michel Foucault coined the term heterotopia as a counter-place amid socially legitimized places (cf. ibid. 2021: 9ff.). Like a mirror, this other space would simultaneously represent, reflect, and refute the normal (normalized) spaces (cf. ibid. 2021: 9ff.). In addition to cemeteries, parks, and prisons, the philosopher also considered brothels to be heterotopias. Based on this conceptual relationship, I use the example of Potsdamer Strasse in West Berlin in the period from 1961 (sealing of the sector border and construction of the Berlin Wall) to 1990 (reunification of Germany) to examine how counter-architectures of sex work manifest themselves spatially and what interactions can be observed between them and the social, political and legislative space in which they are constructed. To this end, I extend Foucault’s classification and examine places of work of sex workers in which (often precarious) spaces of different scales are allocated, temporarily appropriated, or occupied in the sense of anarchitectures. I am interested in whether such counter-architectures of sex work can be understood as a model for contemporary spatial production, in which dynamics of socio-political exclusion and invisibilization overlap with practices of informal and fluid appropriation and occupation.

The doctoral project deals with sex work as marginalized, criminalized for a long time, and moralized to this day. As a result, sex workers in urban areas were and are often only (temporarily) tolerated and exposed to violence and exploitation. These dynamics are interwoven with social attitudes towards gender, class, sexual orientation, and ethnic origin, which I look at from a critical and intersectional-feminist position.

The project is a deductive-inductive research project (theoretical-empirical) from the perspective of architecture, which also utilizes interdisciplinary positions (including sociology, philosophy, and art). To enable different perspectives on the object of research, I choose a combination of different qualitative data methods (analyses of literature, archive documents, and interviews), which are evaluated in a synthesis-forming procedure. More precisely, the procedure can be categorized as interpretative interactionism (cf. Winter 2011: n.p.). In this context, I situate the subjects (sex workers) historically and socially by examining the conditions that led to their specific experiences. In addition to the personal narratives of the sex workers and other actors who made claims to space, my research focuses on planning and mapping materials as spatial records. I contextualize these narratives and documents by placing other written texts and discourses to them (cf. Winter 2011: n.p.).
The research results are to be recorded in text-based and artistic-creative form (drawings and other visual representations of the spaces). Through the artistic investigation of the counter-architectures of sex work, conclusions are to be drawn about specific (precarious) forms of spatial production that a purely text-based work does not make possible. I also consider the planning material to be produced as a basis for future equitable and inclusive urban development and planning.

Foucault, M. (2021): Die Heterotopien. Der utopische Körper. Zwei Radiovorträge. Zweisprachige Ausgabe. Frankfurt a.M., Deutschland: Suhrkamp Verlag. 5. Auflage. 

Winter, R. (2011): Ein Plädoyer für kritische Perspektiven in der qualitativen Forschung. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung, 12(1).

Essays (selection)

Engelbrecht, B. (2025): «Eine geteilte Wohnung. Raumproduktionen von Sexarbeitenden unweit der Potsdamer Straße in West-Berlin um 1980». In: Knosp, T. / Moser, T. / Nuler, J. / Stackmann, S.: Unvoiced Heritage – Queer Feminist Care for Tabooed Spaces in the Existing Urban Fabric, Wien, Österreich: TU Wien Academic Press.

Engelbrecht, B. (2025): «Counter Architectures of Sex Work. Collective Care Networks of Prostitutes and their spatial Productions along Potsdamer Straße in West Berlin in the 1980s». In: Baxi, K. / Glogar, I. / Heindl, G. / Krejs, B. / Schneider, T. (Hg.): Changing Spatial Practices. Alliances, Activism and Networks. Dimensions. Journal of Architectural Knowledge, 09, Bielefeld, Deutschland: transcript. 

Engelbrecht, B. (2025): «Der Widerstand der Sexarbeiter:innen entlang der Potsdamer Straße in West-Berlin». In: trans magazin, No. 47: Soft, Zürich, Schweiz: gta Verlag.

Engelbrecht, B. (2025): «Hotel Potsdam. Mapping sex work in West Berlin». In: L‘atelier Magazine No. 23: Pleasure. Lausanne, Schweiz: EPFL Press.

Engelbrecht, B. (2025): «Sexarbeiterinnen und die Anfänge der Hurenbewegung ‚Hydra‘. Widerständige Raumproduktionen am Beispiel der Instand(be)setzung eines Gebäudes in der Potsdamer Straße West-Berlins». In: AG Denkmalschutzjahr 2025 des ICOMOS Suisse und dem Lehrstuhl für Konstruktionserbe und Denkmalpflege der ETH Zürich (Hg.): A future for whose past? Das Erbe von Minderheiten, Randgruppen und Menschen ohne Lobby. Zürich, Schweiz: Hier und Jetzt, Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte GmbH.