Bates, Charlotte

Goldsmiths Research Online

pdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIDISCOVER SOCIETYMEASURED – FACTUAL – CRITICALDISCOVER POLICY PRESSDISCOVER SOCIOLOGY, DISCOVERSOCIAL POLICYNEGOTIATING PLACE: THE CHALLENGE OF INCLUSIVE DESIGN By discoversociety   September 02, 2014   1 Comment   HOME FOCUS VIEWPOINT ARTICLES ON THE FRONTLINE POLICY BRIEFINGCONTACT ARCHIVEpdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APISOCIAL POLICYDISCOVER THE THINKING ALLOWEDETHNOGRAPHY AWARDArticles, Issue 12Children playing in the water at Woolwich Squares, SE London. Image:Charlotte BatesCharlotte Bates, Goldsmiths, University of London “In my more miserable moments I think we’ll never get it right, and peoplejust ignore it, and building control officers don’t implement it, and we stillsee buildings where somebody says it’s accessible, and it’s not accessibleat all. We’re still designing public spaces with cobbles, brand new publicspaces with cobbles and seats that have got no arms or backrests, andthey don’t understand that an older person can’t get up off a concretestone bench. Why do they keep designing stuff like that?” (accessconsultant x)As the geographer Doreen Massey writes, “The challenge of the negotiationof place is shockingly unequal.” (2005, 169). Despite – and sometimes evenbecause of – the introduction of now taken-for-granted design featuresintended to make access to urban environments more equitable, our townand city spaces continue to frustrate, fail and ultimately omit many of us,from parents and children to people who are elderly, infirm and impaired.Our research investigates why “they keep designing stuff like that”.Focusing on inclusive design – a niche approach that strives towards moreaccessible, flexible and democratic designs – we examine the underlyingvalues, practices, and sticking points entangled in the challenge ofdesigning and making more equitable products and places. To date, wehave interviewed a range of professionals in the UK, including companypdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIDISCOVER THE CAMPAIGN FOR SOCIALSCIENCESUBSCRIBE TO OUR RSSFEEDFOLLOW US ON TWITTERdirectors, access consultants, architects, engineers, and educationalists.These conversations provide insight into the methods and tools used bythese professionals, highlight the difficulties and limitations that they face,and offer a glimpse at the possibility that progress is being made.ValuesInclusive design has developed and evolved in response to increasingrecognition that mainstream design approaches fail to take human diversityinto account. Anthropometric data, regularly used in architectural andindustrial design to incorporate information about human body proportion,posture and movement, constructs the human as a healthy adult of aparticular size and ability. For example, French architect Le Corbusier, apioneer of modern architecture, developed the ‘modulor’, a universal systemof proportions based on the dimensions of a six foot male.Such schemas have the admirable intention of placing the body at thecentre of design, but, perfectly proportioned, it is a minority body. Theresult is design that is uncomfortable and out of reach for the vast majorityof the population. By valuing human diversity and aiming to make placesthat work for everyone, inclusive design promises, as a landscape architectsaid to us, “to open up the challenge of designing for us as we really are,as complex beings rather than the Corbusian perfect man” (landscapearchitect x).PracticesHow inclusive design attempts to achieve its aim is a question that needsunravelling. One key issue that we have focused on to date is thetranslation of inclusive design values into methods and tools that embrace,rather than reduce, embodied human diversity. In practice, these tools andSearch...pdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APILIKE US ON FACEBOOKtechniques range from employing expert access consultants, to using‘personas’ (descriptions of potential ‘users’ based on market research) andsimulating the physical experience of being elderly or impaired with speciallydesigned goggles, gloves and even entire body suits. The ‘Third Age Suit’developed by academics at Loughborough University’s Ergonomics andSafety Research Institute for the Ford Motor Company, for example, isintended to “literally let someone walk in the shoes of an older personand experience firsthand what life is like for someone with restrictedmobility”.Through ‘empathic engagement’, these tools offer the possibility of openingdesign practices to the lived experiences of ‘users’ and diversifying the bodyat the centre of design. But, as many of the people we spoke withrecognised, they can also be used as ‘quick fixes’ that effectively reducethe complexity of human embodiment. As one designer told us, “the personaitself will probably be three or four slides on PowerPoint. The descriptionabout their disabilities is probably a sentence or two” (designer x).Sticking pointsIn addition to the difficulties of incorporating a diverse understanding oflived embodiment into design practices, there are also a number of stickingpoints in the design process that threaten the promise of inclusive design.From the start, designers can find themselves having to convince clientsthat designing for ‘less sexy users’ is the right approach. Instead of takingthe needs of the population into consideration, and despite the marketpotential of the ‘golden economy’, some clients reportedly prefer to directtheir business at the ‘young and healthy’ market sector.At the next stage, support for inclusive design can be overridden bypdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIcontractors who ‘value engineer’ to deliver projects on time, on budget andon value, so that “even if you build inclusive design in at the design stage,you can’t guarantee that it will be kept all the way through procurement –if somebody can find a cheaper way of doing things often they will try to”(designer y).The installation of design features can also be problematic, as one engineerexplained, “the difficulty is executing it and knowing what to do… It’sgenerally done, but unfortunately it’s not done in the correct manner all thetime.” (engineer x). Tactile paving is a prime example. When badly installed,it negates the information it is designed to provide and runs the risk ofbecoming a public hazard. Common installation issues include using thewrong colour paving, a lack of colour contrast with surrounding paving,incorrect use of warning patterns, and inconsistent use of paving typeswithin schemes.Finally, there are issues surrounding the maintenance and care of productsand places. Once in the public realm products are often left to fend forthemselves, as we were told, “nobody takes ownership of it, it’s out on thestreet 24/7, it’s out in all weather conditions, and it gets abused” (designerz).Negotiating placeThe process of inclusive design, from ideation to installation, reveals aliteral ‘throwntogetherness’ of place – a term coined by Massey to signalthe whirl of global diversity and difference in contemporary urban life. I usethe term here to express the precarious and sometimes haphazard way inwhich places negotiate their way into life.  This throwntogetherness revealsthe complex and sticky processes through which designs are shaped andpdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIultimately puts the viability of inclusive design at risk.Our research highlights the labour towards making more accessible anddemocratic places being undertaken by a passionate group of people whoare wrestling with the lack of a joined-up or universal agenda. It has led usto some remarkable and award-winning products, buildings and publicspaces. But it also reveals continuing professional and political ignorance ofhuman diversity and the need to take responsibility for making betterplaces.Reference:Massey, D. (2005) For Space. London: Sage. Charlotte Bates is a Post Doctoral Research Associate in the SociologyDepartment at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she also gained herPhD in visual sociology. Her work touches on the body and materiality,everyday life and sense of place. ‘Universalism, universal design andequitable access to the designed environment’ is a three year researchproject based at the Centre for Urban and Community Research atGoldsmiths, University of London and funded by the ERC (EuropeanResearch Council). The data referred to in this article were collected bythe project team, Charlotte Bates, Rob Imrie, Kim Kullman. Furtherinformation is available at: universalisingdesign.infoShare this:Email Twitter 15 Facebook Tumblr Google Printpdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIName:Nickname..E-mail:E-mail..Website:Website..More1 COMMENT RESPONSESLEAVE A COMMENTComment:Your comment.. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.Sendpdfcrowd.comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF APIThe opinions expressed in theitems published here are those ofthe authors and not DiscoverSociety.ABOUT US  AUTHORS  EDITORIAL BOARD  CONTRIBUTE  CONTACT USCopyright © 2015. Madidus Theme by CreativeKingdom & Different Themes

Negotiating place: the challenge of inclusive design

https://research.gold.ac.uk/11225/3/www_discoversociety_org_2014_09_02_negotiating_place_the_cha.pdf

Negotiating place: the challenge of inclusive design

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