Thinking outside the box is the mantra of the design world. We’re always talking about it. And everyone aims to accomplish it. How does innovation occur? What forces come into play? Is it is luck? Is it effort? Can it be produced through forethought and planning? In September 2003, the six of us, four students and two facilitators at Archeworks, a post-disciplinary design school in Chicago, put these questions to the test. School founders, Eva Maddox and Stanley Tigerman challenged us to make Chicago a hothouse for the advancement of people with disabilities. In other words, we weren’t asked to simply make public space accessible for the disabled, but rather to create a social environment in which innovative ideas and thinking about accessibility continually grow and mature. What we discovered in the course of our research is simple. New thinking spawns more new thinking. The answer to our question lay in the quandary itself.
ARCHEWORKS (D)isability Hothouse/Chicago 2020 Plan
KERL LAJEUNE 2003 - 2004 Disability studies is an emerging field in the United States. Scholars in this discipline challenge our most tightly held preconceptions by challenging easy categorizations of a normal or ideal human experience. In our own work, we were forced to consider nonmainstream, non-dominant ways in which people understand, interpret and engage in the physical world. At the heart of our proposed article is this discussion of the relationship between disability, design and innovation. We will chart the journey of our team’s work, both philosophical and tangible. We will illustrate how the world of disability can be a catalyst for creative, dynamic work in design. To put it simply, disability studies is an avenue towards thinking outside the box. We will also present our own series of urban planning concepts, product designs and built environments that not only address the rights of the disabled but also break new ground. Navigating and traversing contradictions (the unusual combination): •Private space in public arenas (treehouse) •Safety and (dignity of) risk (corner parking, park) •Independence and interconnection (airplane, zones of activity/stoop) •Subliminal and overt (CTA, surfaces, painting the town red) •Reflective and emotive
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