Archinect - News

SLAS architekci designs colorful multifunctional public park in Poland

2023-07-07T15:06:00-04:00

Polish firm SLAS architekci has injected an eye-catching multifunctional public space into a university campus in the southern Polish city of Chorzów. Called “Activity Zone,” the project was a nominee in the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award.

Image © Michał Kopaniszyn

The park was completed in 2019 for the University of Silesia. It is located at the former site of a demolished military building where there were a number of pre-existing trees.

Image © Michał Kopaniszyn

The main goal of the project was to transform this neglected, wooded area where the campus is located into a lively, leisurely location for the public to enjoy. It aimed to promote the university and establish a new green space for the city.

Image © Michał Kopaniszyn

“Activity Zone” was designed as a perforated concrete platform that hosts a diverse program, including a student leisure zone, children’s play devices, fitness areas, individually des...

MASS Design Group's Jeffrey Mansfield receives $50,000 grant for study into architecture for the deaf

2020-12-02T11:04:00-05:00

This week, Mansfield, a design director for MASS Design Group, was named a Disability Futures Fellow by the Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He’s one of 20 artists around the country to receive the $50,000 grant, a new initiative and the only national, multidisciplinary prize for creators with disabilities.

Born deaf, Mansfield, according to The Boston Globe, "plans to use the award to further his Deaf Space Archive research into how the designs of 19th- and 20th-century schools for the deaf contributed to societal perceptions of deafness as a pathology — and what that did to deaf students. He travels the country, learning stories of deaf education."

OLIN Labs hosts educational series on universal design

2019-08-09T13:30:00-04:00

The series served as an introduction to Universal Design, described the social model versus the medical model of Disability, and shared the specific needs and design strategies to accommodate both the Deaf/HoH as well as the Autistic and Neurodivergent communities. This series initiated a conversation reaching across Disabled communities, and demonstrates that while different Disabled communities’ needs may be different, the design solutions are often incredibly similar.

With the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disability Act approaching, discussions that examine where design and accessibility intersect have increased in frequency.

In June 2019, for example, OLIN Labs' hosted a lecture series covering a range of topics relating to the interconnected issues of inclusion and access.

There was the Intro to Disability and the Built Environment, a lecture by Dr. Victor Pineda, founder and president of WorldENABLED, an educational non-profit that promotes the rights and dignities of persons with disabilities. The lecture asked: "what can we do as landscape architects and planners to design more accessible public places, to better include stakeholders with disabilities in the design process, and to understand how public policy can deeply influence Universal Design."

Another lecture, Design for Autism and Neurodivergence: Shaping the Sensory Landscape by People Lab member, Danielle Toronyi, "introduced designers to the Autistic and Neurodivergent c...

The final frontier: wheelchair accessibility in science fiction

2018-08-01T15:29:00-04:00

Space remains a vast, untamed place, penned in only by the limits of our own imaginations. So why the hell are there so many staircases in space? [...] Once you start realizing how many stairs there are stopping you in real life, it becomes impossible not to notice them existing in the sci-fi you adore. Turns out they’re everywhere [...] our sci-fi imitates a real-world reliance on steps and stairs in our architecture.

With Staircases in Space: Why Are Places in Science Fiction Not Wheelchair-Accessible?, Ace Ratcliff pens an excellent analysis of the pervasive presence of staircases in sci-fi that appear to foreshadow a future where universal accessibility for wheelchair-bound people like herself—and beyond that, the full inclusion in society—remain utterly unachieved.

"Unfortunately, 50 years worth of Federation starship manifestations also means half a century of inaccessibility," writes Ratcliff. "The original USS Enterprise bridge has enough steps you could take the equivalent of an aerobics class just trying to get from the turbolift to the Captain’s chair. The same level of inaccessibility goes for both the USS Voyager and USS Discovery, and if you’re a wheelchair user, you better not try to grab an after-shift bottle of bloodwine at Quark’s Bar unless you plan on dragging yourself up several steps to get there. In fact, the bridge from The Next Generation’s Enterprise is the only one that...

The Radical Challenge of Building a Dorm for the Deaf

2013-08-27T18:19:00-04:00

The first thing you notice when walking into Gallaudet University’s newest residence hall is how utterly familiar it looks. [...] Gallaudet University in Washington D.C. is home to nearly 2,000 students who are deaf or hearing impaired, and its recently built dorm was designed with them specifically in mind.

Design for an Aging Population

2013-02-06T23:23:00-05:00

A new multidisciplinary field has emerged in several universities in which sociologists, psychologists and urban planners work to tailor architectural designs to seniors as that demographic continues to grow. In America, 54 million people are over the age of 55 and that number is predicted to increase over the next 30 years by nearly 50 per cent. Despite most people’s desire to age in their own homes, most will be required to seek alternative arrangements.