Leveling the playing field,
Invisible access starts with the right questions!
(1) Spend three hours a year for ten years studying building codes, and you might design something slightly more accessible than the CEPSUM.
(2) Spend three months listening to people living with disabilities, and you will probably realize that access is much more of an action towards what exists.
(3) Spend ten years as an expert, and you might find this statement naïve.
Invisible access goes beyond compliance; it stems from empathy -- a designer's effort to engage with the lived experiences of people living with disabilities. It involves not only recognizing what constitutes a barrier for bodies and minds that do not fit within the norm, but also identifying what opportunities are created from their removal.
Leveling the playing field builds on this approach using two design principles.
[DESIGN PRINCIPLE 01] Asking the right questions, gathered from lived experience and clinical knowledge -- to identify and address barriers to movement, orientation, and sensory experience.
[DESIGN PRINCIPLE 02] Rigging the building, negotiates invisible access through a complementary circulation system that latches onto the existing structure to overtake the various obstacles towards the reception desk and provide new services.
Like a prosthesis, structural cores, rigid frames and post tensioned cables hold overhanging platforms without soliciting the uncompromising existing concrete structure. These platforms provide wide circulations, spaces for new programs, exterior walkways and floor to floor access to the existing infrastructures. They are held by cores, laid along the path, that host elevators, bathrooms, respite areas and areas of refuge connected to the exterior, completing the building services. At its base, the rig creates new accessible entry points by cutting away parts of the site.
[ACCESS IS AN INVITATION !] Access is built from mutual recognition. The method imagined to map the obstacles, and the spatial strategy aimed at overtaking them are not an end. They are an open invitation to you, the potential user:
To share how you would use the space.
To point out what still stands in the way.
And to show what it means - to level the playing field.
(From competitor's text)
The proposal presents many principles and a very interesting analysis of the problem. The diagram highlights an experiential representation and focuses on understanding the needs of the users. Two identical long structures are added for each building. The jury is of the opinion that the proposal would have benefited from more visual representation to illustrate it.
(From jury report)
5 scanned / 5 viewable
- PDF presentation
- Plan
- Plan
- Axonometric Drawing
- Axonometric Drawing
