The Difference Disability makes: Learning about Interactions with Architectural Design from Four Architects Experiencing Disability

Interactions between disability and architectural design are commonly associated with accessibility codes. These associations have contributed to standardizing, and devaluating, disabled people's varied and rich experiences. Some so-called architectural 'solutions' aimed to solve disabled people's 'problems' are often rejected - by disabled people and architects alike - due to architects' over-attention for functional aspects at the expense of aesthetics. This may give the impression that disability and architectural design are opposed and/or influence each other negatively. But what if built environments were designed by architects who experience disability themselves? Previous studies show how experiences of disability and impairment may lead to a careful attentiveness towards spatial qualities that are relevant for the architecture discipline and benefit people in general. These studies have started to unearth creative and innovative opportunities in (architectural) design stemming from an enhanced attention towards (e.g. multi-sensory) features of built environments. This research aims to contribute to articulating this added value through exploring diverse interactions between disability experience, embodied knowledge, architecture practice, and materialised design outcomes of architects who were born, or have become, impaired themselves. How do their design practices and outcomes relate to their embodied experiences of being disabled? The answer to this research question informs other (sub-)questions: what can architecture offer to disabled people? What can disabled people offer to architecture? How could disability experience be regarded as a potential for design practices and outcomes? The research is built up around four case studies and one cross-case analysis. Each case study focuses on a triad of one architect with an impairment, at least one person from their surroundings, and at least one of their materialised designs. Data were collected by conducting several interviews; visiting the buildings under study guided by the respective architect; observing them; and inventorying design media. The first case study explores how Marta Bordas Eddy refers to her embodied knowledge as a wheelchair-user in designing her own house and working as accessibility consultant. Her approach challenges prevailing assumptions of what a house for a wheelchair-user is like, for instance, regarding appearance and size. The second case study attends to George Balsley's Deaf ways of seeing, how they inform the design (process) of a university building, the Sorensen Language and Communication Center, and how they offer a nuanced counterpoint to some critiques on the visual bias in architecture. The third case study explores how William Feuerman's experiences of vision impairment motivate him to capture people's attention through Urban Chandelier, an intervention in public space. His approach highlights architecture's potential to channel (disability) experiences into design artefacts that, in turn, can transform experiences of others. The fourth case study investigates how Stéphane Beel's anticipation of using a wheelchair in the future affects the design (process) of the recently refurbished and expanded Koninklijk Museum voor Midden Africa, a building with heritage features. Our analysis suggests that architects do not necessarily need to embody experiences of using a wheelchair to be affected by them, and integrate accessibility in their designs. The cross-case analysis investigates in greater detail the variety of features - bodily, environmental, socio-cultural, and symbolic - playing a role in participants' experiences of feeling disabled. None of them identify as being disabled, but all four describe experiences of feeling disabled in particular contexts. Disability is thus expressed as a short-lived experience of disruption often intensifying their engagement with the world, rather than as a fixed category. Analysis of their designs shows that they attend to expressive components of architectural design on top of usability requirements - without separating them. Considering use and expression in unison not only counters experiences of feeling disabled and encountered ableism, but seems to be a promising route to facilitate feelings of belonging to someone and/or someplace. This research contributes to ongoing discussions on what disability is, what is experienced as disabling, and how several disruptive parts of these experiences can be countered by design. Besides looking at the performative nature of disability experience and how architectural design can be inspired by it, this research also emphasises the performative nature of architectural design and its enabling potential through concrete examples. The four cases studies offer a rich understanding of the concept of 'access'. Our analysis foregrounds its relational (i.e. body-world) and context-dependent character, its qualitative, experiential, and socio-cultural ramifications, as well as diverse possibilities for implementation. This research also outlines the role, importance, and limitations of embodied knowledge in design practice. Interactions between embodied and professional knowledge assist in finding balanced solutions and making strategic choices, for instance, whether particular design features are worth the effort and investment, or alternatives need to be considered and designed. Likewise, we highlight that identifying bodily resonances, and interpreting those in architectural terms, may be a promising route to connect with, or design for, people one may feel are different from, or distant to, one self. This research contributes to a shift in perspective: from understanding disability as a personal flaw due to a bodily limitation, or a dominant architectural design culture revolving around solving disability-related 'problems', to considering disability (experience) as not-a-problem, but an inspiration for design. Ultimately, we illustrate how architects who have first-hand disability experience are in a privileged position to reconcile disability and architectural design, i.e. integrate disability experience and requirements in architecture in an inclusive, coherent, aesthetically worthwhile, and poetic/expressive way. Their practices and outcomes provide a rich outlook on the multiple possibilities of combining disability experience and architectural design beyond the often narrow associations linked to accessibility regulations.

Jaar van publicatie:2020

Toegankelijkheid:Open