Archinect - News

A Cambridge University research paper explores the challenges faced by architectural design practitioners in embracing inclusive design

2024-01-05T12:15:00-05:00

New research produced by the University of Cambridge has identified key strategies to better effect a widespread implementation of inclusive design beyond its current status as a nascent set of concepts that have yet to be fully adopted by practitioners in almost every sector.

The paper’s lead investigators, Dr. Matteo Zallio and Professor P John Clarkson, surveyed a total of 114 different practitioners of architecture to produce an assessment of the current perceptions and challenges inherent in designing for inclusivity. The results are a reminder of how far the industry still has to go in terms of raising awareness and dispelling misconceptions about inclusive design by identifying critical gaps in client and practitioner awareness.

For example, the paper states “only 41.6% of clients were reported to have requested guidance on regulatory and legal compliance in the pre-design process.” A post-design evaluation of occupants' usability using available tools is another key lagging ...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Positionality"

2023-06-30T11:53:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented or adopted vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term that featured heavily in our recent conversation with Felecia Davis on biases in artificial intelligence.

"Positionality" refers to the social and political context that creates your identity in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability status. Positionality also describes how your own identity influences, and potentially biases, your understanding of and outlook on the world. It is a critical concept in various fields, including cultural studies, gender studies, and social sciences, among others.

AI development is influenced by the positionality of the developers, and it can manifest in many ways. For instance, if an AI system is primarily developed by a particular demographic group, there's a risk that it might unintentionally favor that group due to implicit biases. Facial recognition systems, for example, have been shown ...

CannonDesign is pitching in to help acclimate migrants to NYC

2023-05-15T14:52:00-04:00

A new project from CannonDesign aimed at helping migrants who were relocated to Brooklyn’s Red Hook Cruise Terminal in the past year is providing hope to advocates for inclusive design as the city grapples with a vexing crisis that’s only expected to grow with the end of Title 42.

The project was initiated by Blue Cottage of CannonDesign team member Kimberly Silver, a resident of Red Hook, who, in reaction to Councilwoman Gale Brewer’s charge to do more, worked with fellow CannonDesign staffers Steffany Brady, Dylan Coonrad, and Abbey Furlow to strategize a set of wayfinding design solutions that can help better orient them to the neighborhood and city. Together, they say three core “functions” can be achieved as a result of the project.

Using Silver’s observations of the area, TRANSIT activates street surfaces and other barriers surrounding the terminal with clear trail marker-like visual wayfinding directions to the subway and nearby bus stations.

Image courtesy CannonDesign

NEIGH...

'Catalysts of inclusion': Populous' stadium expert Silvia Prandelli details innovations in inclusive design

2023-05-12T13:45:00-04:00

With several high-profile projects, including the planned Etihad Stadium expansion and the $1 billion Eleven Park in Indianapolis, on its horizon, Populous senior principal Silvia Prandelli sat down with The Athletic recently to detail the firm’s approach to stadium design in an era that is more welcoming to numerous groups — women, families, wheelchair users, and more — left out by traditional approaches to the typology.

Prandelli was the architect for both the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the 2012 London Olympic Stadium projects. She spoke about several concepts the firm is applying to their designs while navigating a host of regulations from national governments and European professional soccer’s governing body UEFA. The solutions mentioned include increased pram storage and gender-neutral bathrooms together among other interventions considered foreign to the sport sector before the last decade.

Populous' TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, which won the top prize at last year's World Fo...

SOM's all-inclusive Kansas City terminal brings air transport design 'far into the future'

2023-02-28T17:04:00-05:00

This week, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is debuting a new civic landmark for the Kansas City area they claim will also set a new benchmark for inclusive design in transportation architecture while bringing its 51-year-old airport “far into the future.”

The new, 39-gate terminal comes with an adjacent 6,000-space parking garage designed by BNIM and importantly consolidates three smaller terminals into a single two-story structure. With room to expand by another 11 gates in the coming years, its layout keys on user circulation and comes with a series of design features in line with the city’s resolution to make it the “most accessible in the world.”

Image: © Lucas Blair Simpson | Courtesy of SOM

Under a hemlock-clad ceiling overhang, both levels of the light-filled, 1.1 million-square-foot I-shaped structure come with a series of locally-designed mosaics made from materials preserved from its predecessor building in order to preserve its memory. The products of an intensive commun...

RIBA taps Benedetti Architects to lead its 66 Portland Place HQ overhaul

2022-05-26T15:31:00-04:00

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has finally picked an architect for its 66 Portland Place refurbishment.

The organization announced today that it has selected Benedetti Architects in the national competition to lead the overhaul of its aged neoclassical headquarters first designed by architect George Grey Wornum in the early 1930s.

Benedetti was selected over shortlisted submissions from Hugh Broughton Architects, Hall McKnight, David Kohn Architects, Roz Barr Architects, Feix&Merlin (with Haptic Architects & Heritage Architecture), Donald Insall Associates, Freehaus, and IDK. The London-based firm will now work with the RIBA on a feasibility study that will include the appointment of several additional smaller practices.

Previously on Archinect: RIBA unveils shortlisted firms to lead 66 Portland Place HQ refurbishment

Benedetti’s founder, Renato Benedetti, said being chosen was a “tremendous honor” and that he agreed it needed “comprehensive improvements to be fit ...

Michael Graves Design teams up with CVS to create a more stylish and accessible line of home health care products

2022-02-22T13:26:00-05:00

CVS Pharmacy and Michael Graves Design are now teaming up on a direct-to-market line of home health care products that will build on the legacy of inclusive design beget by its namesake in the inspiring last decade of his life and career.

The initial round of products focuses on bathroom safety and mobility aids and includes a foldable cane, travel walker, shower chair, 3-in-1 commode, and raised toilet seats each based around philosophies of the Design for All movement which the architect helped create.

CVS Health Take Along Folding Cane. Image courtesy Michael Graves Design.

In order to get the best possible input and consumer feedback from users of the products and their caregivers, the firm undertook a comprehensive ethnography study along the east coast that provided extremely valuable insights into a too-often overlooked area of home product design.

CVS Health Raised Toilet Seat. Image courtesy Michael Graves Design.

“This product actually gives people the feeling that, hey, so...

DIALOG's $120 million Glenbow Museum renovation project is now officially underway

2021-09-30T15:29:00-04:00

As part of an institutional pivot that will take the combination art and history museum in a new direction, Calgary’s Glenbow Museum has officially closed its doors ahead of a three-year-long renovation project meant to reinterpret the 55-year-old museum’s image and impact on the local community.

DIALOG is behind the $120 million plan to make the museum significantly more inclusive, responsive, and accessible, transforming the existing “bunker-like” structure from 1976 into a catalyst for an entirely reimagined public program that aligns more succinctly with Glenbow’s stated goals.

"This museum's mission sits squarely in between the important cultural issues of art and history, and the timing could not be better to help create a facility far more conducive to the important current conversations around cultural inclusion happening in Canada and across the globe,” lead designer Robert Claiborne said in a statement.

Interior view. Image courtesy DIALOG

The existing eight-story build...

DIALOG unveils plans for its new NaAC facility in Calgary

2021-08-04T19:39:00-04:00

Designs for a new arts center servicing the disabled community in Western Canada have been unveiled this week as part of a dynamic rebrand that will give the former Indefinite Arts Center in Calgary a much-needed new home.

Image courtesy NaAC

Featuring an art gallery, cafe, performance venues, and outdoor gathering spaces, the National accessArts Centre (NaAC) will repurpose an old Scouts Canada building thanks to a $12 million redevelopment plan designed by DIALOG.

Image courtesy NaAC

According to NaAC’s CEO Jung-Suk Ryu: “Every city has a performing arts centre, a museum, or an art gallery — but Calgary will be the only city with infrastructure dedicated to the needs and talents of artists living with disabilities. Now, Calgary will truly become the national capital of this important, much-celebrated element of our arts and culture sector.”

Image courtesy NaAC

DIALOG is working with the group to develop an addition to the existing structure, which will be renovated by the local firm...

The CBDX: Cities for All competition recognizes how architects and designers 'might address underrepresented and marginalized voices'

2021-02-15T13:38:00-05:00

A design competition hosted by the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape (SAPL) at the University of Calgary asked participants, "how might matters of equity and activism, ecology and environment, and health and wellness converge, and unfold, within our future cities?" Launched in October 2020, the CBDX: CITIES FOR ALL competition is an initiative led by the school to tackle larger issues within the design community and foster innovative changes for the future of city building.

Assistant professor Alberto de Salvatierra, inaugural faculty lead and jury chair explained, "Cities—which often ossify systemic inequities through the built environment — have become the fulcrum upon which movements for equity and justice have found increasing leverage. Solutions must come from, and be for, everyone. This competition provides a platform to highlight how architects and designers might address underrepresented and marginalized voices."

The result of the competition led to 145 design...

Yinka Ilori on design and design inclusivity

2020-06-17T17:58:00-04:00

Walking into Yinka Ilori’s west London studio from the drab suburban business park outside is to enter an oasis. Floor-to-ceiling shelving is lined with the brightly coloured, upcycled chairs, painted or upholstered in West African fabrics, that made Ilori’s name when he first left college. [...] “My work is very much about inclusivity and how people enjoy design,” says the 33-year-old.

Emerging British-Nigerian designer Yinka Ilori in conversation with The Guardian's Observer Design magazine.

Asked about his growing courage to also take on architectural-scale projects, such as his collaboration with architects Pricegore on the 2019 Dulwich Pavilion The Colour Palace, Ilori responds: "Architecture and design should be for everyone, not just one group. Sometimes it’s not as inclusive as it should be."

Happy Street, London by Yinka Illori. Photo: Luke O'Donovan.

All-woman team Counterspace to design 2020 Serpentine Pavilion

2020-02-10T14:32:00-05:00

Amina Kaskar, Sumayya Vally, and Sarah de Villiers, who form the Johannesburg-based architectural studio Counterspace, have been commissioned to design the 2020 Serpentine Pavilion. All born in 1990, the trio are the youngest architects to design the Serpentine Gallery's iconic pavilion in its 20-year history. Founded in 2015, Counterspace's work focuses on research and interdisciplinary arts-based projects, with an emphasis on architectural projects and community engagement.

Amina Kaskar, Sumayya Vally and Sarah de Villiers of Counterspace. Photographed by Justice Mukheli in Johannesburg, 2020. © Counterspace.

Counterspace's concept for the Serpentine reflects their focus on inclusivity. Combining traditional and innovative building techniques, their design is a poetic interpretation of the gathering, community-oriented spaces around London.

The shapes of the pavilion are “created from a process of addition, superimposition, subtraction, and splicing of architectural forms, direct...

The Architecture Beyond Sight program at the Bartlett brings design opportunities to the visually impaired

2019-09-05T12:30:00-04:00

This summer, several architecture institutions provided workshops and summer intensives for prospective students and adults looking to immerse themselves in an architecture and design environment. The Bartlett School of Architecture's Architecture Beyond Sight program provides an excellent opportunity for designers to allow inclusivity to exist at the forefront during the design process.

Initiated by Bartlett's faculty of the Built Environment dean Alan Penn in collaboration with architect and researcher Carlos Mourão Pereira, the program challenges the conventional approach of designing with sight.

Artist Rachel Gadsden with Judit Pusztaszeri. Image courtesy of Proffessor Alan Penn via disordinaryarchtiecture.com

Architecture Beyond Sight is an engaging summer workshop that challenges "architecture's obsession with visual fixation" Dean Penn shares on the Bartlett school site. During week-long workshop participants are presented with an "alternative to architecture's visual bias, b...

What buildings can teach us about accessibility and future cities

2018-11-12T19:53:00-05:00

Accessibility looks like different things to different people. When architects design buildings there are parameters that must be met in order to meet standard building codes. With the passing of the Americans with Disability Act, building regulations were placed to ensure that the design process included these "check off items". However, how can individuals with varying disabilities know where spaces are "fit" for them.

Accessibility mapping has become a method which helps identify areas that provide access to individuals with disabilities. Groups all over the world from Nashville to Paris take part in "map-a-thons" that allow people to come together in a collective effort to understand where access is available in their city. Whether they themselves are disabled, know of people who are, or concerned citizens who want to become more aware of their surrounds for others accessibility mapping allows for the tracking and documenta...

What could our cities look like if the people designing them were more diverse?

2018-08-27T13:44:00-04:00

Architects are overwhelmingly male and pale, young and privileged, and there are legitimate concerns about them designing our cities in their image. Fewer than one in every 10 architects is black, Asian or minority-ethnic, and less than a third of UK qualified architects are women. And the numbers are not improving.

Christine Murray tackles one of architecture' ever-pressing questions—can a field lacking in diversity truly design for everyone? In her essay for the Guardian, Murray considers what the world might look like if the politicians, planners, developers and architects actualizing our cities were a more diverse group of people. She wonders, for instance, how being a mother might alter the way one "architects", and how the experience of jaunting around town with a stroller might enhance the accessibility of our public spaces. Or, how if teens were in charge, we might have more publicly available phone chargers or more sidewalk space for activities like skateboarding.

Michael Ford on why teaching Hip Hop Architecture is crucial

2017-04-27T14:56:00-04:00

Ford thinks that hip-hop culture, from rapping to break-dancing, is the ultimate critique of midcentury modern vertical slums, and one that could be translated positively into new buildings and city plans [...] By promoting what he calls "Hip Hop Architecture," Ford is advocating an attitude and an approach more than a style.

After architect Michael Ford was inspired to enter the profession by Professor Dan Pitera, “a self-described ‘political and social activist masquerading as an architect’”, he is working on bringing Hip Hop Architecture nationwide to schoolkids everywhere.

“Through his writing, teaching and national speaking, Ford aims to dissolve barriers that have discouraged black children from becoming architects, city planners and urban designers.”

Mapping transgender-friendly bathrooms in hostile North Carolina

2016-03-31T14:56:00-04:00

For most, the act of going to the bathroom is an unremarkable part of their daily routines. However, for transgender people, fear of harassment makes this small decision a tough obstacle. In North Carolina a recent law has been introduced requiring people to only use bathrooms that match the gender they were assigned at birth. Web designer Emily Waggoner was "devastated" by the new legislation, and decided to do something to help those in need of a safe location to use non-gendered bathrooms.

Waggoner, who grew up in North Carolina although currently lives with her partner in Boston, worried about the safety of her transgender friends back home after the state passed this new, and highly controversial, legislation.

While purporting to be in the interest of "safety," such legislation greatly increases the risk of violence for members of the transgender (and gender non-conforming) community, with little-to-no evidence (or legitimate evidence) that it makes any other group safer. In the vast majority of cases of violence involving the transgender community, trans individuals are the victims – not the other way around.

Even without specific legislation like this, transgender people face much greater risks of physical and sexual violence than those faced by cisgendered individuals. More than one in four trans people have been assaulted in their lifetime – and the rates increase when looking at trans women and trans people of color.

Using Google Maps, Waggoner has created a tool ...