Discover the partnership websiteLiving Atlas of Quality
18 August 2026Hotel Gondolin Case Study Analysis in "Spaces of Night Care."
| Resource type |  |
| Author | Renee Li |
| Copyright owner | Nighttime Design |
| Type of viewpoint | Researcher |
| Language | English |
Hotel Gondolin began as a standard low-budget hotel located on the edge of a predominantly Jewish working-class area of Buenos Aires and the neighboring red-light district. Exploiting the hotel’s proximity to the main thoroughfares for “travesti” or trans sex work and the transgender community’s disenfranchisement, the owner began letting its rooms to trans women at exorbitant rates while also neglecting building maintenance. Still, the hotel’s trans population grew as it became an important node in the trans survival network, with many residents migrating to Buenos Aires to escape persecution in less tolerant parts of Argentina. By 1998, Hotel Gondolin’s trans residents organized to get the city to shut the hotel down, then peacefully occupied the building and transformed it into a self-managed housing cooperative for trans women. Today, it also operates as a community center that hosts cultural activities and job training workshops with the objective of helping trans women improve their living conditions.
Hotel Gondolin began as a standard low-budget hotel located on the edge of a predominantly Jewish working-class area of Buenos Aires and the neighboring red-light district. Exploiting the hotel’s proximity to the main thoroughfares for “travesti” or trans sex work and the transgender community’s disenfranchisement, the owner began letting its rooms to trans women at exorbitant rates while also neglecting building maintenance. Still, the hotel’s trans population grew as it became an important node in the trans survival network, with many residents migrating to Buenos Aires to escape persecution in less tolerant parts of Argentina. By 1998, Hotel Gondolin’s trans residents organized to get the city to shut the hotel down, then peacefully occupied the building and transformed it into a self-managed housing cooperative for trans women. Today, it also operates as a community center that hosts cultural activities and job training workshops with the objective of helping trans women improve their living conditions.
