Urban Chandelier: How Experiences of Being Vision Impaired Inform Designing for Attentiveness

Abstract

Prevailing conceptions of disability in architectural discourse give rise to the devaluing of disabled people's lived experiences. However, several studies in architecture and disability studies show how disability experience may lead to a careful attentiveness toward the qualities of the built environment that are relevant for design. Using focused ethnography, we examine how architect William Feuerman's disruptive vision impairment restructured his attention. The insights gained from his experience were incorporated conceptually into his design practice, and the resulting design principles were realized in one of his office's projects—Urban Chandelier, a design intervention positioned in an urban installation. Feuerman's experiences encouraged him to deliberately introduce disruption into his design, aiming not to disable everyone, but to make passers–by attentive to their surroundings. He re–organizes people's modes of attention through the distinct visual qualities of architecture, generating new meaning, in a similar manner as the stroke that affected his attention. We conclude that considering disabled people's lived experiences demonstrates potential in designing artifacts experientially interesting for a broad population, including but not limited to disabled people.