Four Wheelchair-User Architects

It certainly seems like a fortuitous accident that four wheelchair users have ended up studying at the same school of architecture, at almost the same time. Maybe it is even the same kind of twisted fate that has confined us to a wheelchair in the first place, as none of us was born in it. With different ages, backgrounds, interests and sets of difficulties to master, we committed ourselves to initiate careers in architecture several years ago. Accessibility issues, especially in terms of mobility, have (always) been an intrinsic and fundamental part of our approach to academic projects, and they will most certainly continue to maintain a strong presence in our professional lives. This book reflects a set of principles and motivations that fuel our daily concerns. First and foremost, it is our desire to introduce people to a wide range of viewpoints, other ways of perceiving the environment in general, and architecture in particular. Furthermore, we aspire to break nonsensical stereotypes, particularly those that claim everything dealing with accessibility and universal design is ugly or sad, or that it only exists to assist a ridiculously small chunk of the population that is (un)fortunately affected by some kind of affliction. In terms of academic training, we’d like to voice our concern that very little is being done to approach architecture through anything other than a pure ocularcentric bias that precludes other basic concepts. If anything, architecture is created by means of and for the entire human body. Finally, it is also our wish to present our final theses projects, not because they are particularly extraordinary or look especially nice, but because they were conceived in a unique way: they were created with a view to fostering the closest possible relationship between user and designer

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.status: publishe

Designing from a disabled body: the case of architect Marta Bordas Eddy

Studies on design, disability and phenomenology offer rich insights into how the designed environment is experienced by people with different abilities. In architectural design, this experience is only starting to become recognized as a valuable resource for designers. Considering disability as a particular kind of experience, we report on a focused ethnography of architect Marta Bordas Eddy’s design practice. We analyze how her design practice and outcomes connect with her embodied experience of being a wheelchair user and the role of architecture therein. We interviewed Marta, her sister/co-worker and her life partner/co-habitant, gathered design documents, and analyzed the house she designed for and by herself. Our study highlights how Marta’s embodied experience of being disabled combined with her background informs how she assesses design and establishes distinct architectural qualities. Being a disabled person and a designer enables Marta to detect problems in design in an intuitive body-based manner and think of solutions at the same time. The analysis of Marta’s house moreover raises awareness of architecture’s role in (disabled) people’s lives insofar it can support or impair human capabilities. It challenges prevailing views of what a house for a disabled person looks and is like, and how apparently restricted capabilities can be neutralized by design.status: publishe

Through the Eyes of a Deaf Architect: Reconsidering Conventional Critiques on Vision-Centered Architecture

Critics point to an excessive visual emphasis in Western architecture bringing about a weakened sense of belonging, and a disconnection from places and from other people. Architects’ visual way of knowing and working is further criticized for contributing to an alienating “architecture of the eye.” This article seeks to challenge this critique by offering a more nuanced understanding of vision and its connecting potential. To this end, it engages with how a d/Deaf architect, George Balsley, uses and attaches meaning to vision, partially prompted by the highly visual and spatial dynamics inherent to sign language. It relies on several interviews, observations, and a guided tour through a building he helped design, the Sorenson Language and Communication Center (SLCC) in Washington, DC. The article looks specifically into the building’s vision-centered features in relation to George’s d/Deaf ways of being. His way of seeing is reflected in distinct characteristics of the SLCC that sustain (sign) language, mediate interpersonal communication, and facilitate connection to and understanding of spaces – features that are relevant for but also beyond the d/Deaf community. The architecture that issues from George’s d/Deaf ways of seeing thus challenges the critique that vision-centered architecture by definition disconnects.status: publishe

Urban Chandelier: How experiences of being vision impaired inform designing for attentiveness

Prevailing conceptions of disability in architectural discourse give rise to the devaluing of disabled people’s lived experiences. However, several studies in architecture and disability studies show how the experience of disability may lead to a careful attentiveness towards the qualities of the built environment that are relevant for design. Using focused ethnography, the authors of this article examine how architect William Feuerman’s disruptive vision impairment restructured his attention. The insights gained from his experience were incorporated conceptually into his design practice, and the resulting design principles were realized in one of his office’s projects – Urban Chandelier, a design intervention positioned in an urban installation. Feuerman’s experiences encouraged him to deliberately introduce disruption into his design, aiming not to disable everyone, but to make passers-by attentive to their surroundings. He re-organizes people’s modes of attention through the distinct visual qualities of architecture, generating new meaning, in a similar manner to the stroke that affected his attention. We conclude that considering disabled people’s lived experiences demonstrates potential in designing artefacts experientially interesting for a broad population, including but not limited to disabled people.status: accepte

Enriching interpersonal relations: two disabled architects’ aesthetic appreciation and conception of built space

Some notions of aesthetics in architecture focus on the individual-environment relation rather than on the relations between individuals occurring within space and the role of architecture therein. Other notions start to question these individual perspectives by looking into aesthetic sensibilities oriented towards creating environments that enrich interpersonal relations. In this context, our study examines two architects’ aesthetic appreciation and production of built space, and how it relates to their perspective of being disabled. We report on the study of two cases: the Sorenson Language and Communication Center (SLCC) and Urban Chandelier, in tandem with their architects’ experiences of being disabled. Along with analyzing design media, in-depth interviews with deaf architect George Balsley and with vision impaired architect William Feuerman gave insight into how the aesthetics of their conceived spaces facilitate, enhance or intensify socio-affective relationships with(in) the environment and/or between bodies. In relation to George’s deaf ways of being, the SLCC nuances spatial boundaries by attending to spatial communication pathways and degrees of visual privacy relevant for sign language. For its part, Urban Chandelier aims to enhance social (inter)action and facilitate appropriation of urban space. Conceptually, the chandelier’s effect relates to William’s own experiences: his vision impairment altered his visual attention, granting him with a newfound awareness of his own body, his surroundings, and a more socially-oriented understanding of aesthetics. In light of these findings, our study supports the claim that aesthetic enjoyment may be taken in (inter)active and socio-affective relationships occurring within, and supported by, the built space.status: publishe

Four Wheelchair-User Architects

It certainly seems like a fortuitous accident that four wheelchair users have ended up studying at the same school of architecture, at almost the same time. Maybe it is even the same kind of twisted fate that has confined us to a wheelchair in the first place, as none of us was born in it. With different ages, backgrounds, interests and sets of difficulties to master, we committed ourselves to initiate careers in architecture several years ago. Accessibility issues, especially in terms of mobility, have (always) been an intrinsic and fundamental part of our approach to academic projects, and they will most certainly continue to maintain a strong presence in our professional lives. This book reflects a set of principles and motivations that fuel our daily concerns. First and foremost, it is our desire to introduce people to a wide range of viewpoints, other ways of perceiving the environment in general, and architecture in particular. Furthermore, we aspire to break nonsensical stereotypes, particularly those that claim everything dealing with accessibility and universal design is ugly or sad, or that it only exists to assist a ridiculously small chunk of the population that is (un)fortunately affected by some kind of affliction. In terms of academic training, we’d like to voice our concern that very little is being done to approach architecture through anything other than a pure ocularcentric bias that precludes other basic concepts. If anything, architecture is created by means of and for the entire human body. Finally, it is also our wish to present our final theses projects, not because they are particularly extraordinary or look especially nice, but because they were conceived in a unique way: they were created with a view to fostering the closest possible relationship between user and designer