xen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
xenakis) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
accessibility_fail2009-06-15 12:53 am
xenakis) wrote in accessibility_fail2009-06-15 12:53 am
Accessibility Win!
Because they exist, too!
As an architectural intern, I have to deal with issues of accessibility and universal design all the time. That means to be concerned not only with the minimum dimensions required by the building code (yeah, how'd you guys like them 1:12 ramps? pff!) but to think about the wider issues of location of accessible entrances, barrier-free routes, legibility of signage, etc. It's pretty hard and frustrating sometimes, but I try to see the ADA regulations as opportunities for innovative design. One pretty wicked example of this is the stair/ramp designed by Cornelia Oberlander and Arthur Erikson in Robson Square, Vancouver:
The "Stramp", as we call it, pretty much embodies the idea of universal design: to make one feature accessible to everyone. You wouldn't know it looking at the amount of fail you encounter in buildings, but we are actually taught these things in school (ok, it was an elective, and three of us took it, which is probably one of the reasons for the failfest...) Architects are usually pretty on board with coming up with solutions like this - none of us want the ugly lifts or endless ramps to mess up our beautiful facades - but it is often quite hard to convince clients or city officials to spend extra money or "waste" space on integrated design... What they need to understand is that people with disabilities are not the only ones helped by these changes: parents with strollers, elderly men and women, people who just want to take the scenic route up the building, everyone benefits from them.
As an architectural intern, I have to deal with issues of accessibility and universal design all the time. That means to be concerned not only with the minimum dimensions required by the building code (yeah, how'd you guys like them 1:12 ramps? pff!) but to think about the wider issues of location of accessible entrances, barrier-free routes, legibility of signage, etc. It's pretty hard and frustrating sometimes, but I try to see the ADA regulations as opportunities for innovative design. One pretty wicked example of this is the stair/ramp designed by Cornelia Oberlander and Arthur Erikson in Robson Square, Vancouver:
The "Stramp", as we call it, pretty much embodies the idea of universal design: to make one feature accessible to everyone. You wouldn't know it looking at the amount of fail you encounter in buildings, but we are actually taught these things in school (ok, it was an elective, and three of us took it, which is probably one of the reasons for the failfest...) Architects are usually pretty on board with coming up with solutions like this - none of us want the ugly lifts or endless ramps to mess up our beautiful facades - but it is often quite hard to convince clients or city officials to spend extra money or "waste" space on integrated design... What they need to understand is that people with disabilities are not the only ones helped by these changes: parents with strollers, elderly men and women, people who just want to take the scenic route up the building, everyone benefits from them.
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