Abstract
In spite of regulations aimed at ensuring that all people can enter and move through spaces, the need to create physical solutions that do not separate or segregate disabled populations has been overlooked. Further, the response of architects and designers is often to meet these regulations without considering the emotional impact of their designs, or the need for all users to be able to retain a sense of dignity as they enter and move through buildings and open spaces. This gap calls for a (re)generation of the urban form with a totally new agenda. My research argues that designing spaces for disability should focus on designing places for dignity. Aimed at upcycling everyday environments as enabling environments, this research identifies and comparatively analyses typologies of apartment buildings and neighbourhoods in Athens, Greece, where the experience of dignity is ubiquitously threatened due to a planning pathogenesis. Here, typologies are evaluated using dignity-based criteria, and new design guidelines and actions are proposed. This research and its findings will enrich access-knowledge through their innovative urban design paradigms with the potential to transform spatial environments into dignified spaces for all.
Highlights
In spite of regulations aimed at ensuring that all people can enter and move through spaces, the need to create physical solutions that do not separate or segregate disabled populations has been overlooked
This paper promotes design for disabled people and argues for design that promotes human dignity. It demonstrates a critical need for architects and urban designers to respond to dignity-based criteria such as accessibility, safety, privacy, social interaction, and flexibility in a way that transforms physical forms into meaningful places serving all-inclusive communities
Definitions, terminology, meaning, and perceptions relating to both disability and dignity constitute an ongoing discourse, with distinct strands that have supported and contradicted each other in different historical contexts
Summary
‘I admit there is a dignity and beauty in a long flight of steps. Let them be used, around statues and monuments, where we don’t have to mount them. The design of buildings and their adjacent sidewalks and streets primarily reflects the needs of healthy-bodied individuals, considered capable of climbing stairs, opening doors, traversing narrow hallways, and crossing streets. This is in spite of the fact that one in seven people worldwide has physical difficulties performing these tasks. This paper promotes design for disabled people and argues for design that promotes human dignity It demonstrates a critical need for architects and urban designers to respond to dignity-based criteria such as accessibility, safety, privacy, social interaction, and flexibility in a way that transforms physical forms into meaningful places serving all-inclusive communities. As this paper argues, designing both private and public spaces (such as homes and neighbourhoods) without addressing accessibility concerns is an attitude and practice that promotes exclusionary spatial design
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