Archinect - News

Miniature architecture allows the visually impaired to experience scale and detail

2019-12-04T17:45:00-05:00

Despite changes in technology and forms of representation, around the world, architectural models continue to address an important issue in aesthetic experience: Providing access to architecture for the visually impaired.

"Whether it’s marveling at the height of the Eiffel Tower or gaining a new appreciation for the decorative tiling at the Taj Mahal, seeing these famous sites with one’s own eyes is one of the biggest pleasures of travel. But what about those with visual impairments?" writes Jessica Stewart of My Modern Met.

Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion. (Wikimedia Commons)

Mathias Church. (Wikimedia Commons)

It's an important question, one with an answer that displays itself in physical form. Scale models, like those created by German sculptor Egbert Broerken, situate themselves across the globe in various city centers, allowing the visually impaired to explore the urban landscape under the nerves of their fingertips.

Market Square. Poznan, Poland. (Wikimedia Commons)

Mai...

There's more to architecture than having vision. How one man's loss is transforming perspectives

2019-01-14T16:58:00-05:00

For many architects, much of one's work depends upon the visual possibilities where space can transform. Often overlooked, many designers forget what it is like to design buildings and structures for the blind or hearing impaired. Universal accessibility and inclusive design methods are being discussed more and more within the architecture community. Educators, advocates and architects like Chris Downey use their experience and skillsets to transform the perspectives of architecture for the visually impaired.

Chris Downey speaking to architecture students at the University of Arkansas Image © uark.edu

he main lobby at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Polytrauma and Blind Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto, Calif., one of Downey’s first major projects after he lost his sight. Photograph courtesy of John Boerger Image © ncsu.edu

In a recent 60 Minutes interview with Leslie Stahl, Downey shares with the public how the loss of his sight helped him become more aware of what it mea...

A blind New Yorker identifies the city by scent

2016-05-05T12:26:00-04:00

I’m blind, so my nose tells me what neighborhood I’m in. My dog and I – we walk. We’ll walk from 125th down to Houston. The smell of Harlem is definitely different now. It’s more open. There’s a new class of people. The whole thing feels like someplace else.

To navigate a vast city, people often develop a set of idiosyncratic markers: personal landmarks, favorite coffee joints, or in Craig Taylor's case, the smell of a particular section of town. Should designers start thinking in terms of creating signature scents to help identify their work for a populace that can't "see" projects traditionally?

For all the best in the smells of architecture:

Chris Downey on designing inclusive "multisensory" environments for the visually impaired

2015-07-06T18:40:00-04:00

Many people view GPS and similar emerging interior-wayfnding technologies as a way to 'solve the blind wayfnding challenge.'...Architects still need to be better multisensory placemakers to design and create effective environments for the blind and visually impaired.

Chris Downey, whose story as a blind practicing architect was recently documented in the AIA's "Look Up" campaign this past May, dishes in on his own experiences with embossing printers, wayfinding devices, and graphic input tools, and other emerging technologies that have the potential to vastly improve how architects — both visually impaired or not — will work. However, he also warns about relying too much on those technologies and that architects must uphold the responsibility of designing effective environments that are accessible to everyone of all abilities.

Previously:

AIA launches second video in "Look Up" campaign featuring a blind architect

“3D Soundscape” Can Guide Blind People Through Cities

2014-11-19T15:19:00-05:00

Enter Cities Unlocked, a project intended to help people with sight loss navigate cities. The brainchild of a blind Microsoft employee, it uses GPS, a 3D audio headset, and Bluetooth beacons, among other technologies. [...] “I’m a blind person, I need to keep my ears open,” she says. The headset uses bone-conducting technology, in which vibrations create a “3D soundscape” around the user.

What People Cured of Blindness See?

2014-08-29T00:35:00-04:00

The absence of these rules can frustrate the newly sighted, whose visual world can be both blurry and two-dimensional—paintings and people are often described as “flat, with dark patches”; a far-away house is “nearby, but requiring the taking of a lot of steps”; streetlights seen through glass are “luminous stains stuck to the window”; sunbeams through tree branches collapse into a single “tree with all the lights in it.

Now, go ahead and incorporate some of these images into your architectural visualization...

How a Blind Architect Reframes Design

2014-08-08T14:11:00-04:00

Downey needed something tactile to work with, and he found it in a kids' toy. Spread out before him on the table are stacks of embossed plans ... marked up with brightly colored wax sticks. [...] The sticks warm to the touch and bend easily; they can make precise angles, and—crucially for Downey—their tackiness makes them stick to paper. "Once I realized that, I thought, 'Oh, I could use that to draw on top of an embossed drawing.'" Suddenly, he had a way not just to read, but to make.

Previously, the LA Times profiled Downey and his firm: Blind architect sports an upbeat vision

Designing for a space people won't ever see

2009-05-02T15:19:00-04:00

After Chris Downey, of Piedmont, lost his sight, rather than change careers, he stayed with architecture. Now, with the help of a white cane and drawings that have raised figures, Downey plans buildings for the blind. --
SF Gate