chapter in anthology

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2017:

Unhousing Sexuality:

Sexuality and Singlehood in Singapore's Public Housing

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Image: Birkhauser

In Singapore, public housing managed by the Housing & Development Board (HDB) is explicitly structured around state-sanctioned heteronormative family units, functioning as a primary vehicle for nation-building and social order.

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In "Unhousing Sexuality: Sexuality and Singlehood in Singapore's Public Housing," Lilian Chee examines how state policies, spatial design, and social ideologies systematically marginalize and "unhouse" non-normative identities—specifically unmarried singles and queer individuals—by delaying or severely restricting their access to state-subsidized housing. Chee investigates the spatial and social consequences of these institutional exclusions, analyzing how singles navigate, subvert, or negotiate domesticity, autonomy, and belonging within a built environment engineered primarily to enforce nuclear family norms.