Client - Architect Conduit
Mind the Gap advocates within the design process for the agency and inclusion of disabled people. Being aware of the importance of inclusive design right from the outset of a design process , means that I am able to ask the important questions, identify when particular attention needs to be given to specific decisions, and facilitate constructive communication between clients and architects.
Getting the process right
The communication between client and architect is a crucial one. Being involved from the start of a project ensures that this connection has consistent clarity throughout the design process. Through iterative design processes, often including specialist creative workshops, Mind the Gap supports an approach towards enabling and agency.
During my time as Design Director at Chambers McMillan Architects being involved at every stage of the design process was essential to yadda yadda.. The following examples of live projects that I have led demonstrate the value of having this expertise involved throughout.
Selected projects below:
The Yard, Dundee
With the aim of building an inclusive play centre that would support a wide range of children and young people, we worked iteratively with the client and the users to develop spaces that opened up possible ways of being in the space for a wide variety of children and young people: exploration, play, rest and retreat, fast and slow spaces, sensory spaces.
I recognised the potential for an innovative collaborative design process, which would produce spaces that offer inclusive support for a wide range of children and young people using the Yard
I implemented a series of iterative creative workshops with the children and young people who use the yard, that allowed us to develop designs which were responsive to a wide range of their needs and desires. Through the iterative process, the users had agency and ownership in how the spaces developed. In my role, I designed creative workshops that would allow their thinking about space to be expressed, and then I observed, listened and communicated in order to better understand their intent. By documenting this process, we were able to spatialise these into a design which gave space to many different ways of using them. This is the embodiment of flexible design, which is my aim in all projects I am involved in, to create truly inclusive places.
Glasgow Disabled Scouts Lodge
To support Glasgow Disabled Scouts in a re-design of adaptations of their residential Lodge, I designed a series of workshops which would allow the different scouts to explore their use of space, and their needs in relation to the residential lodge, and would also give us the opportunity to observe this exploration, in order to inform our design process for the adapted lodge.
The processes of the workshops gave the scouts the opportunity to investigate and understand the spaces they would need for weekend and holiday living at the lodge, and also to investigate dimensions and designs to be as broadly inclusive as possible.