Archinect - Features

Towards Neuro-Spatial Diversity: Thoughts on the Relationship Between Architecture and the Patterns of the Mind

2020-03-15T13:40:00-04:00

“Too proper for the black kids, too black for the Mexicans… what’s normal anyway…” opines mixed-race, LA-born R&B artist Miguel on his 2015 track, “What’s Normal Anyway.” The artist’s self-identified ethnic identity quandary serves to mirror our understanding of the gradated nature of mental health conditions. Mild encounters with anxiety, obsession, and mania, amongst other symptomatic states, are a fundamental part of the human experience. In the classical model of mental health disorders, it is only when these symptoms are abnormally heightened and chronic enough to cause consistent distress that the shift from ‘normal’ to ‘disordered’ occurs. Subjectivity is unavoidable in this act of categorization.

Crip Camp: An Interview with Filmmaker Jim LeBrecht About Accessibility, Universal Design, and Spaces of Freedom

2020-03-07T09:42:00-05:00

The politics of disability are fundamentally spatial. They respond to the struggle for equal access and representation against different forms of socio-spatial discrimination and aspire to alternative understandings of the relation between the body and space that destabilize both current constructions of an able body as well as established norms concerning the use of space. Expanding beyond design guides and regulations to encompass more broadly structural and systemic issues related to the experience of disablement and segregation, this concern continues to be relevant well beyond the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).1 The goal, in this context, is not only to facilitate access to buildings for differently abled bodies but also access to society itself as equal individuals.

Unpacking The Spatial Implications Of Architecture's Accessibility Failures

2020-01-14T13:19:00-05:00

There is a particular type of obliviousness to the built environment that most of us have the privilege of experiencing day-to-day. This obliviousness relates not to architecture’s aesthetic values, but rather to architecture’s accessibility out in the world. Built to Scale, an exhibition by artist Emily Barker currently on view at Murmurs Gallery in Los Angeles, is designed to knock you right out of it. And for designers and architects, it's a must-see. On view in a young gallery tucked between the nondescript buildings of LA's Manufacturing District, Barker's new solo show delves deep into the fundamental misunderstandings of architectural accessibility and its spatial implications, particularly in the realm of the home.

Jacoby Architects Discusses Their Design for an Educational Facility Catering to the Deaf and Blind

2018-10-08T13:50:00-04:00

A year ago, Joe Jacoby took over his father's Utah-based architecture firm, but the small practice is still churning out the kind of large-scale, passionate projects they've become known for. For example, the team recently completed the C. Mark Openshaw Education Center, an educational facility for the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind that caters to blind and visually impaired, deaf-blind, and deaf and hard of hearing students.

Despite a sizable portion of our population reporting visual and hearing impairments, our buildings and urban spaces typically aren't designed for them. To look at the alternative to this, we talked with Joe to see how his firm rendered accessibility through their architectural work, bringing a new perspective to the meaning of good design.

ShowCase: Archaeological Pavilion by kadawittfeldarchitektur

2014-02-07T09:39:00-05:00

ShowCase is an on-going feature series on Archinect, presenting exciting new work from designers representing all creative fields and all geographies.