Author:

Keywords:

embodiment, disability experience, design practice, technology

Abstract:

Studies have offered rich insights into how the designed environment is experienced by people with different abilities and conditions. In the context of architectural design, this experience is only starting to become recognized as a valuable resource for designers. Drawing from the premise that disability is a particular kind of experience, we report on an ongoing focused ethnography of architect Marta Bordas Eddy’s design practice. In doing so, we analyze the connection between (a) her design practice and outcomes and (b) her lived (or embodied) experience of needing a wheelchair and the role of architecture therein. We conducted four face-to-face interviews in a contextualized setting, two with the disabled designer, one with her sister/co-worker and one with her life partner/co-habitant, we gathered design documents, and we visited and analyzed the house that she designed for and by herself. The study highlights how her embodiment of disability in combination with her background has multiple effects: (1) through experiencing dis- and enabling environments and the potential of design therein, she is able to appreciate distinct architectural qualities; (2) she developed the capacity to materialize subjective experiences of her own embodiment in combination with other, more technical requirements into a final built form; (3) it grants her firm a particular kind of distinction and credibility, in addition to a more nuanced understanding of accessibility regulations that are linked to her impairment and an insight of the requirements behind them; and (4) the emotional dimension of her embodied cognition makes her aware of both the value of her own lived disability experience in design practice, and her limited knowledge on how other people experience space differently. Her design expertise in combination with disability experience has a positive effect on her impairment, turning it into a rare ability that guides her design practices and outcomes.