This studio investigated specific aspects of visual spatial perception and the extent to which this investigation could be used to generate unique spatial conditions in buildings. The studio consisted of three components:

RESEARCH – initial research into a specific condition which has been historically labeled a ‘disability.’

FABRICATION – Using the Materials and Methods Shop, students fabricated a one-to-one construction which was intended to create a spatial condition which was both enabling/disabling for the viewer.

BUILDING DESIGN – Students incorporated the results into the design of a new building focused on creating environments in which the ‘disabled’ participant is privileged in their engagement with the environment over the ‘able-bodied’ participant.

New urbanism is rapidly gaining popularity among consumers, developers, and government. This oppositional movement seeks to develop more livable, balanced, and sustainable communities in contrast to continued suburban sprawl in the suburbs and the abandonment of urbanist design traditions in central cities. The stated goals of the NU movement are very compatible with the goals of inclusive design. However, there are also many critics of new urbanist practices who maintain that new urbanism too often results in neighborhoods and communities that exclude social groups based on race, income, disability, and age. The instructor is, in fact, one of the most visible critics with regard to age and disability.