small indignities generous solutions
design | barriers by ron wickman
barriers access beauty sustainability accommodation
Barrier-free design is a large issue that gets little attention. I specialise in such things, with a small practice with too much work. In Vitruvius’s ten books on architecture, written in 25 BC, he said that architecture must provide utility and function, firmness and strength, beauty and grace. He did not say that architecture must contain barriers to be beautiful. Architecture is not just for the hale, it is for everyone, yet so many people are barred from entering buildings because of the building’s inaccessibility. When I was at architecture school it was assumed that we were building for people like ourselves. My father was in a wheelchair: my filter is to always ask of any project, ‘How would Dad get in?’ We travelled together a lot; often I would have to leave him at the entrance and visit the inside myself, or we would have to find some other way of getting into some very famous architectural space. When my family recently went to the Salk Institute and I was getting ready to take the classic image across the plaza, I realised that if you take the wheelchair pathway to it, the power of moving onto the plaza is lost. If the plaza was accessed by a sloped pathway rather than the stairs, would the Salk Institute be diminished in any way?
As simply an issue of good design, beautiful buildings must be accessible. Just as architects incorporate sustainability into their work, so must they incorporate barrier free access – not because a bylaw forces them to, but because it should be inconceivable not to. By 2026, 20% of Canada’s population will be older than 65. It is highly likely we will all know someone with a disability. And very likely that we will own a house that will not accommodate independent disabled access. It concerns me that this is not an issue until it personally affects architects and designers. There will be so much future renovation work that we could address properly right now, but instead we continue to build without much thought for this very real future. How can this possibly be considered a sustainable way of thinking?
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On Site review 23 Small Things
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