Four wheelchair-user architects

197 Pages·2017·2.51 MB·English

by  Miguel Usandizaga

Four
Wheelchair-User
Architects

Marta Bordas Eddy

Sergio García Soler

Carlos Vidal Wagner

Natalia Pérez Liebergesell (ed.)

With the contribution of Miguel Usandizaga
This book is dedicated to my nephew
Marc and my niece Clara, who are the
most incredible human beings on Earth.
Natalia

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION:
Julia Pelletier and Ximena Pérez Grobet

TRANSLATION:
Natalia Pérez Liebergesell
(except “Keeping My Wheels On the Ground” and “Convergent Diversity”, by Carlos Vidal
Wagner)

PROOF READING:
Matt Elmore and Lola García Abarca

Oficina de Publicacions Acadèmiques Digitals de la UPC
Jordi Girona 31, Edifici Torre Girona, Planta 1, 08034 Barcelona
Tel.: [phone]
www.upc.edu/idp e-mail: [email protected]

The contents of this book are subject to license Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Spain Creative
Commons, unless otherwise indicated.

The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of
the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability
of any errors or omissions that may be made.

© texts: the authors
© translations: the authors
© projects: the authors
© Four Wheelchair-User Architects
© Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Iniciativa Digital Politècnica, 2017

Printed in Spain
ISBN: 978-84-252-2982-4
ISBN: 978 84 9880 686-1
Legal Deposit: B. 10153-2017
Printing: Gráficas SYL,
Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona)

Distributed by Editorial Gustavo Gili, SL

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ENGLISH

Introduction ......................................................................................................... 7
(Non)Sense
Natalia Pérez Liebergesell .................................................................................... 8
Essay on Good Life Projects
Miguel Usandizaga ............................................................................................ 25
Accessibility: an unavoidable part of the journey of life
Marta Bordas Eddy ........................................................................................... 42
Access for All
Marta Bordas Eddy ........................................................................................... 51
Go through the back door
Sergio García Soler ........................................................................................... 58
Project ATH
Sergio García Soler ........................................................................................... 64
Keeping my wheels on the ground
Carlos Vidal Wagner .......................................................................................... 71
Convergent Diversity
Carlos Vidal Wagner .......................................................................................... 80
The well and the lighthouse
Natalia Pérez Liebergesell .................................................................................. 87
I’mpossible
Natalia Pérez Liebergesell .................................................................................. 95
Acknowledgments ........................................................................................... 102
Bibliography .................................................................................................... 104

ESPAÑOL

Introducción .................................................................................................... 110
(Non)Sense
Natalia Pérez Liebergesell ................................................................................ 111
Ensayo sobre unos proyectos de buena vida
Miguel Usandizaga .......................................................................................... 129
Accesibilidad: una parte inevitable del viaje de la vida
Marta Bordas Eddy ......................................................................................... 147
Access for All
Marta Bordas Eddy ......................................................................................... 157

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Pase por la puerta de atrás
Sergio García Soler ......................................................................................... 164
Project ATH
Sergio García Soler ......................................................................................... 170
Tocar con las ruedas en el suelo
Carlos Vidal Wagner ........................................................................................ 177
Convergent Diversity
Carlos Vidal Wagner ........................................................................................ 186
El pozo y el faro
Natalia Pérez Liebergesell ................................................................................ 193
I’mpossible
Natalia Pérez Liebergesell ................................................................................ 201
Agradecimientos ............................................................................................. 208
Bibiografía ....................................................................................................... 210

CATALÀ

Introducció ...................................................................................................... 216
(Non)Sense
Natalia Pérez Liebergesell ................................................................................ 217
Assaig sobre uns projectes de bona vida
Miguel Usandizaga .......................................................................................... 235
Accessibilitat: una part inevitable del viatge de la vida
Marta Bordas Eddy ......................................................................................... 252
Access for All
Marta Bordas Eddy ......................................................................................... 261
Passi per la porta del darrere
Sergio García Soler ......................................................................................... 268
Project ATH
Sergio García Soler ......................................................................................... 274
Tocant el terra amb les rodes
Carlos Vidal Wagner ........................................................................................ 281
Convergent Diversity
Carlos Vidal Wagner ........................................................................................ 289
El pou i el far
Natalia Pérez Liebergesell ................................................................................ 296

4
I’mpossible
Natalia Pérez Liebergesell ................................................................................ 303
Agraïments ...................................................................................................... 310
Bibliografia ...................................................................................................... 312

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6
Introduction

It certainly seems like a fortuitous accident that four wheelchair users
have ended up studying at the same school of architecture, at almost
the same time. Maybe it is even the same kind of twisted fate that has
confined us to a wheelchair in the first place, as none of us was born
in it.

With different ages, backgrounds, interests and sets of difficulties to
master, we committed ourselves to initiate careers in architecture
several years ago. Accessibility issues, especially in terms of mobility,
have (always) been an intrinsic and fundamental part of our approach
to academic projects, and they will most certainly continue to
maintain a strong presence in our professional lives.

This book reflects a set of principles and motivations that fuel our daily
concerns. First and foremost, it is our desire to introduce people to a
wide range of viewpoints, other ways of perceiving the environment in
general, and architecture in particular. Furthermore, we aspire to
break nonsensical stereotypes, particularly those that claim everything
dealing with accessibility and universal design is ugly or sad, or that it
only exists to assist a ridiculously small chunk of the population that is
(un)fortunately affected by some kind of affliction. In terms of
academic training, we’d like to voice our concern that very little is
being done to approach architecture through anything other than a
pure ocularcentric bias that precludes other basic concepts. If
anything, architecture is created by means of and for the entire
human body.

Finally, it is also our wish to present our final theses projects, not
because they are particularly extraordinary or look especially nice, but
because they were conceived in a unique way: they were created with
a view to fostering the closest possible relationship between user and
designer.

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(Non)Sense

Natalia Pérez Liebergesell

“I was told: ‘You have to be objective as a
scientist, and you mustn’t empathize with
your subject.’ I feel this is where science has
gone wrong. To have this coldness, this lack
of empathy […] why deny a perfectly
respectful tool? It gives you a ground work for
asking questions.”
JANE GOODALL (2014)

Over the past decade, the concept of User-Centered Design has
gained global significance for designers and architects. In any design
process, it needs to be clear beforehand who it is we are designing for,
as well as the needs and – more importantly – the limitations of those
who will ultimately enjoy it. The design therefore requires intuitive
understanding, foreseeable use, context and a clear purpose.
Furthermore, objects that have a user-centered design must be
inherently logical and rational; questions like “why” and “what for” may
be disputed but can always be defended. Their raison d’être goes
beyond visual enjoyment and the actual use of the object is
unequivocally primary.

Perception (a concept that will be commented on at length later)
surely has a huge impact in the early stages of this process. What
makes perception controversial is that it is always linked to
subjectivity, whether it pertains to the designer (expression) or the
user (utility). Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1994) poses a simple yet
decisive question: “How would the painter or poet express anything
other than his encounter with the world?” To which Juhani Pallasmaa
(2010) adds:

In my view, an architect is bound to explore and express this very
encounter [with the world]. I believe that I am an architect primarily
for the reason that this craft offers particularly essential and
meaningful possibilities of touching the boundaries of one’s self with
the world, and experiencing how they mingle and fuse into each
other.

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In a posterior joint publication, Steven Holl (2006) further explains the
difference between primary and secondary purposes in architecture,
and he does so by referring to Alvar Aalto’s Säynätsalo Town Hall,
which I believe can be transposed to any design: the primary purpose
of a town hall is to provide the town with offices, administrative
facilities, a council chamber and meeting rooms (what architects refer
to as “program”), to which hundreds of secondary effects can and
should be added. He further points out that, in architecture, the
primary purpose has to be balanced against a multitude of secondary
considerations: the phenomena of material, space, detail, etc.; thus,
secondary effects become experimentally (and perceptually) more
transcendent than all the primary ones.

In The Design of Everyday Things (Norman, 2013), attention is drawn
to the concept of “designing for error”, i.e., human conceptions should
always allow for human wrongdoing. Norman provides a well-known
example: when we err on an artificial device, we create chaos that
leads to frustration and irritation. The issue, then, is to understand the
causes of human error and try to minimize them in advance. In
addition, designers and architects should never force the user to
change their behavior or liberty in order to do something: there should
always be room to explore the realms of “serenity and seduction”
(Zumthor, 2006). In his book, Norman also discusses door handles
thoroughly, especially in terms of self-evident concepts, pointing out
that plates and buttons afford pushing, while bars and handles afford
pulling. Form follows function. A function that makes sense.

But again: who am I designing for? Who is going to benefit from it?
The answer to that question is surely going to have a profound impact
on the outcome.

Is it me I’m designing for? Is it the client? Is it the future user/visitor?

Marika Shiori-Clark (2011) makes a valid point in discussing User-
Centered Design in these terms. She states that designers and
architects move between two opposing poles: on the one hand, they
aspire to see their beautiful objects out in society and to display their
craft and vision; but, on the other hand, they also wish to achieve
some kind of positive impact through their compositions and
arrangements. She further points out that it is our choice how far we
want to advance the notion of societal benefit. Supposing that user
and designer are two separate sides of an equation, what happens if
they’re on the same side? Shiori-Clark concludes by saying that the
ideal situation is one where the designer and the user converge.
Obviously, designers and architects can’t always actually BE the user;
the trick is for them to imagine they were by virtue of empathic
assumptions, which can and should be learned and trained.
Who is disadvantaged?

In contrast to sensorial disabilities, there is something very distinct
about physical disabilities, something that distinguishes wheelchair
users from other types of disabled users and that must be taken into
account, especially in architecture and urban planning. The life of a
person in a wheelchair is limited to factors other than an inability to
walk. What (or who) makes me disabled? As incredible as it may
sound, it is, first and foremost, the environment.

At home, I have a piece of paper with an official stamp that says I am
73% disabled. I believe this is not true – or, at least, not accurate. Far
from being static, the degree of my disability oscillates depending on
the degree to which my environment is appropriate. In barrier-free
surroundings I am perfectly able, except for the fact that my legs won’t
move on command.

However, regardless of how many hurdles we may encounter in the
field of architecture, I have come to share the opinion of two of the
few architects in the world practicing without sight, Chris Downey and
Carlos Mourão Pereira, who believe (along with many others) that our
singular knowledge of kinesthetics and perception makes our
apparent disadvantage turn into a rare ability. In keeping with our
earlier remarks on User-Centered Design, we are naturally able to
place ourselves in our own drawings and models and bring our
experience and awareness to the very foundation of our designs. How
do we apply this natural ability to architecture and why can it be
socially beneficial? Because it is premised, for the most part, on a
perspective that comes from the most disadvantaged circumstance:
whatever fits us, will undoubtedly work on a much larger scale.

Disabilities in the realm of design and architecture reveal new ways of
perceiving and appreciating, a way others may not necessarily be
attuned to. As Downey (2011) said himself, “there’s a value in that;
one we didn’t study in school”.

“…and just like that,” he says, “ my disability is turned on its head.”

Good architecture: for whom?

“Care is the natural enemy of stereotype, and stereotype of care.”
CHARLES MOORE, GERALD ALLEN & DONLYN LYNDON (1974)

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