Archinect - News

OSD’s new South Cato Springs development provides nurturing space for neurodiverse adults in Arkansas

2023-06-28T18:57:00-04:00

A new neighborhood-scale development from OSD aimed at enhancing the lives of neurodiverse adults has broken ground outside of Fayetteville, Arkansas following a special ceremony held this week with the firm and its client, a local nonprofit organization called SLS Community.

Their master plan for a mixed-use and mixed-income tract called South Cato Springs will eventually endow the region with a workforce housing micro village that also features dedicated space for a new center for the University of Arkansas Medical School, recreation, and agricultural areas all surrounding a central town square on a plot located near Kessler Mountain Regional Park.

Image courtesy OSD

The firm says it will become an example of a concept it calls “mindful urbanism,” offering itself to the community as both an empowering care space and elevating pedestrianism that is built from and deeply rooted in the rich natural landscape surrounding its idyllic 230-acre site.

Image courtesy OSD

This objective will ...

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...

Archinect LAX >< DET Mini Sessions; A Conversation with Sean Ahlquist, Detroit-Based Architect, Educator and Researcher

2017-06-01T16:46:00-04:00

This week we are releasing a series of conversations, or "Mini-Sessions", with architects and designers in LA and Detroit, in partnership with the Los Angeles Design Festival. The festival will be taking place in Downtown LA from June 8 to 11th. Today we're sharing my conversation with Sean Ahlquist, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. I talk with him about architectural education and his work merging new technologies with innovative applications of architecture and material research in his Lab for Material Architectures.

If you’re able to attend the LA Design Festival, make sure to check out the live panel, titled LAX >< DET, discussing the connection between LA and Detroit, a collaboration with the Detroit Design Festival and the L.A. Forum for Architecture and Design. The event will be taking place on June 10th, from 2-4pm at ROW DTLA 777 Alameda Street, and will include Edwin Chan, Chris Den...

Autistic teens use architecture software to build job skills

2014-07-15T12:51:00-04:00

Sixteen-year-old Mason Dimock can focus intently on one subject, thinks visually and spatially, and is interested in technology — skills that have helped him land a summer job designing for a construction company. He and nine other Salt Lake City teens were selected for a pilot project by NeuroVersity, a company that aims to give students with autism or similar disorders the training they’ll need for careers. The students work with 3-D imaging software called SketchUp Make, developed by Google.

The Architecture of Autism

2013-10-15T12:10:00-04:00

In 2009, a pair of academics, Kim Steele and Sherry Ahrentzen, collaborated on “Advancing Full Spectrum Housing,” a comprehensive design guideline for housing adults with autism. (An expanded book on the topic is scheduled to come out next year.) Perhaps the first development to closely follow their template is Sweetwater Spectrum, a residence for 16 adults whose abilities and disabilities span the full range of autism.