Ride, Don't Walk

 This blog post demonstrates an important issue regarding designing any building; wheelchair accessibility. Through a real life simulation of myself doing daily tasks in a wheelchair, I now have a new perspective of the importance of designing spaces to accommodate people in wheelchairs.
Here are some pictures, observations, and sketches of some of the tasks I completed.

Reaching for a magazine on the 3rd shelf.

Frontal view sitting in the wheelchair.

The only closed stall in the restroom was very difficult to enter. The stall was so close to the wall I had to maneuver my way in. Once I was in the stall, there was no way I was able to close the door, let alone turn around.

Washing my hands in a public bathroom. The sink height allowed me to roll under the sink ad gain access.

About to roll up the ramp, arms are very fatigued at this point.

Using the automatic door opener. All the buttons I had access to were easily reachable at arms length.

Sketch of me pressing the automatic door opener button.

A strenuous stretch to try and pick up my coffee order at the stand.

Brief sketch of myself ordering from the coffee stand, sketch shows comparison of the counter height to me in the wheelchair.

Looking straight on at the coffee stand. The top was a good foot and a half above my head.

After I completed this demonstration, I realize how easy it is to take granted the daily tasks in life, and for people in wheelchairs, these daily tasks are a challenge. As a designer, I believe everyone should have equal opportunity and access to all spaces. Universal design has evolved into a necessity in any design as the population in our society is very diverse. Designers need to evaluate the challenges that people with disabilities face everyday, and from there create a design that best accommodates those needs. Every single person in our society are equal, and the designed environment should be accessible by all, regardless of cost. With the technologies the world has come up with should make buildings easily usable by all.

Home Concept Development

Inspiration Song/Poem

Our House

Our house is a house we built together
We have laid every brick one by one
We have nailed every board one blow at a time
Our house is a house we built together

Every board is not perfect some are not straight
Some walls are built in the wrong place
We must carefully remove those boards
We must carefully remove those walls

We must rebuild them in the correct place
We must replace each board one by one
Until the holes are all closed
Until all the walls are in the right place
When we finish we can stand back and say
This is our house, a house we built together

Jamey Einrem

 

This house that built me

I know they say you can't go home again I just had to come back one last time Ma'am, I know you don't know me from Adam But these hand prints on the front steps are mine
Up those stairs in that little back bedroom Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar And I bet you didn't know under that live oak My favorite dog is buried in the yard
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it This brokenness inside me might start healing Out here it's like I'm someone else I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could just come in, I swear I'll leave Won't take nothing but a memory From the house that built me
Mama cut out pictures of houses for years From "Better Homes and Garden" magazine Plans were drawn and concrete poured And nail by nail and board by board Daddy gave life to mama's dream
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it This brokenness inside me might start healing Out here it's like I'm someone else I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could just come in, I swear I'll leave Won't take nothing but a memory From the house that built me
You leave home, you move on And you do the best you can I got lost in this whole world And forgot who I am
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it This brokenness inside me might start healing Out here it's like I'm someone else I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could walk around, I swear I'll leave Won't take nothing but a memory From the house that built me
Miranda Lambert

Home: Concept Web

 

 2D Concept/Parti sketches

 Study Model

Front View

 Final Concept Model

Side View

Right Side View

Left Side View

 Reflection

When thinking of a home, there are many interpretations of that meaning. To help me describe what a home means to me, I looked to the poem Our House by Jamey Einrem and the song The House that Built Me by Miranda Lambert. My concept is that a home is a place the you dream about and make come to life, shown by all the spirals and swirling paper. A home grows as the time goes on, as represented by the fence. As the model grows, the “fence” grows taller, stronger and fits together. A home may not be perfect, but it is a place you call your own.

I continued to grow on creating 2D concept sketches that grasp my concept. My drawings first started off being a little to literal as I drew bricks, houses, and objects. My goal was to display my idea of a home more abstractly. I was able to achieve this by piecing together a couple drawings together.

The materials I ended up using worked well for my design concept as I want to portray a fence that started small and individual pieces being distant from each other, to eventually tall and placed together. The stand represents a strong foundation a home is built on. And the color brown to me represents building materials.

At first glance, someone may not be able to see exactly how this model represents a home. Through my concept development and explanations, I believe I achieved my goal of creating a cohesive model of my idea of “Home.”

Case Study: Sustainable Design

Introducing new ways to build homes to accommodate the future is crucial in design. This case study briefly describes the use of sustainable building materials from a newly renovated home in Los Angeles, CA. This house efficiently restored over 75% of the existing structure and from there was able to incorporate the needs of their life, nature, and green quality.

Brushing up my skills on InDesign, along with the help of my three team members, we were able to come up with a layout that incorporated the elements on a case study report. Starting pretty basic, our design evolved into a more professional layout with the addition of colored text books, additional pictures, and a unity with all the posters with fonts and titles.

My strengths from this case study were leading my group in discussions, coming up with a direction for the posters, and keeping communication open. The weaknesses I came across was the fact I could have done a little more research on the types of sustainable design and how they could be related to anyone’s life. Overall, I think the concept of the poster comes across the audience.