The Draware Project ©
Ruth MorrowSchool of Architecture, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
The DraWare Project was a funded pedagogical research project based in the school of architecture in University College Dublin, Ireland. It sought to imbed universal design across all 5 years of the undergraduate course of architecture: Bachelor of Architecture (BArch). The School has approximately 250 students and the project ran for just over 2 years, between January 1998 and March 2000
The project was part-funded through the European Social Fund of the European Community. The broad aim of the project was to contribute to the creation of a universally accessible built environment through architectural education. Specifically this meant experimenting with various teaching methods and awareness raising techniques within the existing contexts of the school of architecture and the profession.
All students on the architecture course were involved at different times throughout the project's life.
The DraWare Project was structured across the course of architecture, participating in and contributing to all areas of dissemination, discussion and design. In particular, the principals of universal design were incorporated into lectures, history/theory seminars and design studios.
The Key Faculty were the DraWare team (John Olley, Ruth Morrow and Fionnuala Rogerson) and all design tutors in the school of architecture.
Lectures
As part of the third year lecture course: 'Ecology of Architecture' (Conservation and Sustainability)DraWare presented a series of lectures entitled "Designing for Inclusion". Lecture topics addressed: legibility and way finding, designing for all senses, the spatial environment and exclusion, the visual environment, the aural environment, the tactile environment, the conceptual environment, the cognitive environment, air quality, molding space and artifacts to bodily movement, sound sculpturing space, light sculpturing space and sensing space.
History / Theory Seminars
DraWare and associated staff ran history / theory seminars for fourth year architecture students which led to written dissertations.
Three seminar series were developed under the following titles:
"Normal People and their Everyday Lives": This examined the definition of 'normal' and the gap that exists between the general public and the architect's view of architecture. It led to discussions about why architects presently do not design for all people.
"Perception, Representation and Designing for the Senses": These seminars looked at how the built environment is perceived through the senses with particular emphasis on the non-visual processes of the aural, tactile, hepatic and olfactory and their interaction and interconnection. Representation, meaning and way finding within the built environment, landscape and gardens were also explored.
"Voices from the Margin": This explored the secret spaces of a city: the spaces between the everyday. It investigated their position in the contemporary and the historical city, both metaphorically and geographically, their qualities and characteristics, and the nature of the people who inhabit them - outsiders, the homeless, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and those excluded on the basis of race, disability, gender or sexual preference.
Design Studio
Within the Design Studio, DraWare participated in existing projects by simply adding 'universal design' to the discussion. On other occasions it made alliances with other growing interests in the school to create new projects which addressed both concerns. At no time did DraWare create a project that only addressed universal design concerns. Examples of these projects are as follows.
Project Examples from the Design Studio
Environmental Barriers- Analysis and Sketch Design Project.
This project, for students in their fourth year of study, was usually designated
a landscape project. Under DraWare's influence the project was sited in
Tullamore, a town in the center of rural Ireland surrounded by vast areas
of bog land. DraWare's influence meant that the students were asked, not
only, to analyze and understand the landscape but also the relationship
between the landscape and the people. Links were established to a local
umbrella voluntary organization representing people with disabilities, travelers,
women's groups, unemployed and residents of local authority housing estates.
With their help the students involved in the project met a wide range of
the local people, including an elderly member of the community, a wheelchair
user, a travelers family, a single parent family and a local community leader.
Through these meetings the students uncovered parallel problems of access
to town and landscape. In response the students produced sketch design
proposals, which sought to address these problems through a mixture of
singular interventions and wider planning responses. The completed work
was presented to umbrella organization and a video was produced. It is
a measure of the students understanding of the relationship between people
and the environment that many of their ideas mirrored similar ideas under
discussion amongst the community of Tullamore.
Residential Center For People With Severe Physical And Sensory Impairments and Housing For The Elderly.
Both of these projects developed from the work in the previously described project based in Tullamore. DraWare was approached by two groups; 'Centre for Independent Living' and 'Rights for the Elderly', both of which were at the start of the briefing process for accommodation that they wanted to build to meet their group's needs.
DraWare and a group of interested students were asked to submit design proposals for each building. The process was fairly typical of such live projects: an initial set of meetings where the client explains the context and the needs of the user, followed by presentations and round table discussions of the students design work in progress.
The uniqueness of the project arose from the equality of the relationship between the client bodies and students. Both groups learnt equally from the process; the students learnt about the specific needs of the users and client bodies became better informed about what good design could offer them and in general raised the level of their architectural expectations. In this way schools of architecture are not only educating able practitioners of universal design but also increasing the numbers of informed advocates within the general public. In addition, involving users in the design studio directly results in the students developing more accessible methods of communication and representation.
Sensory Installations
This project initially grew out of fourth year history / theory seminars entitled 'Designing for the Senses'. However it became a collaborative project with the building technology laboratory staff, who saw it as an excellent opportunity for students to experience 'designing whilst making'. Seven fourth year students were involved in designing and building a 'Box'. The site chosen for its location was the quadrangle around which the school of architecture was arranged, in this way the entire process became the center of attention for the school.
Once the external structure was complete each student used a variety of materials to manipulate the space, exploring one or more aspects of the senses. The sensory installations addressed such issues as; how changing light conditions can affect the perception of materials, how sound can suggest architecture, how differing materials, colors and textures affect the 'feel' of a space, how different light conditions can affect the perception of space, how light affects the perception of color and how moving projection destabilizes solids.
The overall affect in a simple subdivided space is of great contrast in light intensities.
Introduction to People and Space
DraWare organized an introduction to people and space in the third week of the first year course. The introduction directly preceded a project where the students visited and analyzed three different architectural spaces - a room, a building, a part of a city. The aim of the introduction was to encourage students to think more fully about the relationship of the body to architectural space and the factors that affect that relationship.
The introduction was delivered in two workshops. Following the first workshop, 'Using your Body' where students were asked to work in groups and compare sizes and proportions of their bodies; the students were asked to list the factors that affect the human body.
In this way the conversation, without needing any direction, naturally turns to issues of ability/disability, race, gender, age, generational and cultural differences etc. The workshop provides the first step to recognizing difference between individuals and hence groups in society. The second workshop, 'Avoiding the Visual' asked students to experience space whilst wearing a blindfold. This was not a disability simulation exercise, but again in the discussion that followed, students were able to identify factors that affect sensory perception in architectural space. Their list included temporary sensory impairments; such as fear of reaching out to touch, a head cold or confusion caused by too many sensory stimuli (noisy room), plus the more permanent sensory impairments
At the conclusion of the workshops the students were given a handout and asked when visiting and analyzing architectural space, not only to look at and think about the spaces but also to note the experience of them firstly through themselves and then by observing others.
STORIES OF EVERYDAY LIVING
This was a second year studio project that also involved fourth year students. It is another example of a collaborative project devised together with the studio staff of second year, who were interested in alternative methods of representation. Following is a paragraph taken from the project description written for the students.
"The project focuses on people for whom the ordinary built environment presents problems and inconveniences. Because of their circumstances they have either had to adapt their daily routines to suit their environment, or have adapted their surroundings to suit their needs. In groups of three or four, you are asked to visit these people in their homes to learn how they negotiate the built environment in the course of a normal day. Think of these people as your collaborators and clients. They want you to understand how the built world looks and feels and functions (or not) for them - in the hope that their needs as users will become as important to you as your aspirations as a designer. You will have to ask questions, listen, watch, learn, record, and above all to empathize.
This project should prove useful in the subsequent design project for housing. Having considered the minutiae of domesticity as experienced by a range of individuals you will have to translate what you have learnt into a more general approach to domestic architecture."
This project set out to develop independent learning skills in students as early as possible. It sought to address this by asking the students to investigate and document the lives of a variety of people, all of whom had a disability and were drawn from a wide range of ages, social and educational backgrounds.
The second year students were asked to illustrate one aspect of these peoples' everyday lives in a way that would communicate the barriers they faced in the built environment effectively and efficiently to a small group of fourth year students.
The fourth year students then acted as advocates and described the student's work to a much larger audience made up of second years, fourth years and staff. In total ninety-eight students were involved.
One of the most successful presentations illustrated one small but important fragment of a person living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS): getting out of bed in the morning and going to the bathroom. The students presented this in a series of drawings that displayed in detail every aspect of this sequence from gaining balance when getting out of bed to turning on the light switch in the bathroom. The drawings produced were spaced and hung through a doorway in such a way that slowed the viewer to the pace of person living with MS.
For more information, contact Ruth Morrow at r.morrow@sheffield.ac.uk.
DraWare web site: http://avc.ucd.ie/DraWare
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Citation: Morrow, Ruth (2001). The Draware Project ©. Retrieved (Enter Date), from Universal Design Education Online web site: http://www.udeducation.org/teach/program_overview/program_infused/morrow.asp
