Architecture without Sight

Abstract

Nearly one in five people in the United States have a disability, where about 25.5 million people have difficulty seeing - making that one in ten people in the. Of those 25.5 million people, approximately 8.0 million are considered legally blind (Statistical Snapshots from the American Foundation for the Blind).

In most cities in the United States, engineered tactile pathways and alienating sounding signals are still considered the “norm” for blind and visually impaired users. However, other countries such as Denmark and Japan have developed and implemented integrated building signals into their cities to accommodate such a population.

“Our Western Society lives on the surface, caring only about appearances... The sensory mode that best serves the distancing that objectivity requires is vision: in order to see, one needs no direct contact with the circumstance to be known and thus one can be quite removed from it. The senses of hearing, touching, taste, and smell all require closer contact or actual engagement, so they are denied importance.”

- Karen A Franck and R. Bianca Lepori, Architecture from the Inside Out

As generally sighted people, designers primarily rely on vision and rarely consider how a space may be experienced if it went unseen, especially by those who are either blind or visually impaired. This is in part due to the nature of the profession; however, society also contributes to the typical visual language of design. Sight is easy. In humans, it is typically the first sense to asses space or surroundings. It is through seeing that users, designers, and architects can evaluate and / or understand space before experiencing it - allowing users to avoid direct or closer contact with architecture.

As a result, this practice has shaped the professions of both architecture and design into dominantly visual phenomena - where aesthetics is favored over other sensory integrations. Therefore, the question regarding the definition of space arises - is the space created by architecture a solely visual experience? If it is, how can other senses be engaged to allow the building to communicate with the user in a non-visual way?

What do walls sound like? How does touch enhance experience? How can the height within a space be felt?

As creators of space, can architects create spaces that speak to visually impaired and blind users as to communicate in a similar way as sighted people visually interpret a building? If so, how can architects define their designs through senses other than the visual and integrate aesthetics through such sensory stimulations? The solution is much more complex and experiential than simply engineering tactile sidewalks and alienating sounding signals. Instead, the solution should strive to accomplish an experience of space where the building communicates with the users - allowing them to navigate and orient themselves freely in space.

As designers we must feel space from the perspective of those who visualize it through senses other than sight. As designers, we must ask ourselves, what is the quality of an architectural experience if such architecture cannot be seen?