Touch-Inclusive

Touch Inclusion The Touch-Inclusive Spatial Experience of the Blind and the Visually Impaired in Copenhagen Botanical Garden

Yatu Tan Supervisor: Heidi Svenningsen Kajita Semester 3- MA Spatial Design The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture and Design (KADK) Submission deadline: 13 December 2018 Number of characters: 38536

Contents

Background and Motivation Botanical Garden and Haptic Perception Blindness and The Neglected Haptic Perception Botanical Garden and Blindness Inclusive Design

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Research Question

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Theory

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Blindness and Visual Impairment Touch and Blindness Inclusive Design

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Methods Ethnography Interview and Participant Observation Site-Writing

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Case Study Walking with the Blind

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Discussion

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Conclusion

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Bibliography

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Photo on the front cover: The blind informant was exploring the Palm House in the Botanical Garden

Fig.1 The plant sample given by the guide for visitors to touch.

Background and Motivation Botanical Garden and Haptic Perception The Copenhagen Botanical Garden is a part of the Natural History Museum of Denmark. For the botanic amateurs and learners, it is an educational machine and research laboratory; for tourists, it is a typical attraction with a lot of graceful natural history stories; for residents, it doubles as a public park for leisurely activities. Personally, as a Spatial Designer, the Garden gives me inspiration of sensation.

In November 2018, during the guided tour that I joined, the guide would pass the visitors some samples of plants from time to time to supplement her spoken presentations (fig.1). Besides the abundant visuals of the Garden, this tactile experience deepened my impression and perception of various plants. From this, I naturally think of how was Helen Keller1 first introduced to the word “water”: her teacher placed her hands under the stream and began to spell the letters “w-a-t-e-r” into her palm.2 If blind people visit the botanical garden, what the tactile information do they receive? Will the tactile enhance their perception of place? These two questions bring forth the motivation to investigate the perception of touch for the blind further when they are inside the Botanical Garden.

Blindness and The Neglected Haptic Perception

1 Helen Adams Keller(1880-1968), was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree.

2 Helen Adams Keller’s autobiography. Three Days to See. 1933

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Descartes 3 regarded vision as the most comprehensive and noble sense(Pallasmaa,2008, p.19). However, he considered touch to be “more certain and less vulnerable to error than vision”(Levin, 1993, p.4). Many justifications for the importance of touch have appeared because, in Western culture, sight has historically been venerated as the dominating sense among the others, while the sense of touch remains largely neglected. Physiologically, touch is a modality produced by a myriad of receptors and nerve endings associated with pressure, temperature, pain, and movement. There is more to touch. “It is a sense of communication. It is receptive, expressive, can communicate empathy. It can bring distant objects and people into proximity.”(Paterson, 2007,p.1.) Touch is a very critical perception for everyone, especially for the blind and visually impaired. It plays a role in supplementing their lack of sight. I believe that by looking into the relationship between the blind and the sense of touch can help us to retrieve the tactile perception in space.

Botanical Garden and Blindness How do the blind people perceive nature? How do the haptic experiences contribute to their perception of nature? Helen Keller recounts her vivid imagination of nature4 in Three Days to See. She depicted a very accurate and poetic images of the nature’s textures through her sense of touch: “the delicate symmetry of a leaf”, “smooth skin of a silver birch”, “rough, shaggy bark of a pine” “the happy quiver of a bird in full song”, “the cool waters of a brook”, “a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass” (Keller, 1933). When the blind perceive nature through haptic perception, sometimes their experiences are more sensitive and exciting than sighted people. As a place where nature and architectures are combined, the Botanical Garden would have many inspirations for the cognition of inclusive design.

Inclusive Design When looking into the research of the inclusive design in architectural practice”5(Linden, et.al., 2016, p.33), they point out that the diversity of users is not taken into account into the design process, and suggest to implement the experience of this diversity of users in the design process of future architectural practices. They argue that there is potential for the designer’s attitude towards inclusive design to shift from accessibility to people’s spatial experiences. Inclusive design need not imply restrictions on the design process nor a hindrance to design solutions; it can be an enrichment to the design inspired by diverse people’s spatial experiences.

Therefore, it would be meaningful and inspiring to understand the4 design of touch-inclusive experiences for the blind and visually impaired through studying their perception of touch in a spatial experience such as Copenhagen’s Botanical Garden.

3 René Descartes(1598-1650), was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist 4 Helen Keller, 1933, Three Days to See. 5 Valerie Van Der Linden, et al., “From Accessibility To Experience: Opportunities For Design In Architectural Practice”

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Research Question What is the existing touch-inclusive experience of the blind and visually impaired in the Botanical Garden? To what extent the sense of touch contributes to the spatial perception of the blind and visually impaired?

Theory Theory examined will be in three-fold: the first defines blindness and visual impairment, the second discussed the relationship between touch and visual impairment, the third explores touch-inclusive experiences about the principle and goals of the inclusive design.

Blindness and Visual Impairment The World Health Organization has classified vision impairment into two groups, distance and near presenting vision impairment(2018)6.

People can see very well at 6/6, while ten times worse at 6/60(see only 1/10 of what 6/6 people see)(Wendy Watt,2003).7 The scope of this paper will be on the group whose visual acuity is worse than6/60, who are “unable to see because of injury, disease, or a congenital condition”(Oxford Dictionaries), in order to understand how they employ their sense of touch to perceive the spaces.

Touch and Blindness When Mark Paterson describes The senses of touch, he writes a list related to the sense of touch such as “haptic”8, “cutaneous”9, “tactile”10 and so on. Therefore, touch is a sense not limited to one’s hands but also to one’s skin, as well as to gain the sensation of pressures, temperature, and pain.

Edward Hall pointed out that human sensory apparatus can fall into two categories: the first of which is distance receptors, relate to the perception, gaining form eyes, ears and nose; and secondly, the immediate receptors, which used to detect objects at close range, that is, the tactile information we receive through skin, membranes, and muscles. The skin acts as the main tactile organ that receives the gain and the loss of the heat, as well as the radiation and conduction of heat. (Hall,1966, p.41-42) So strictly speaking, the skin counts as both the immediate receiver and 6 Distance vision impairment: Mild- presenting visual acuity worse than 6/12 (0.5), Moderate-presenting visual acuity worse than 6/18 (0.32), Severe-presenting visual acuity worse than 6/60 (0.1), Blindness-presenting visual acuity worse than 3/60 (0.05); Near vision impairment: presenting near visual acuity worse than N6 or N8 at 40cm with existing correction.

7 Wendy Strouse Watt, O.D., 2003. How Visual Acuity Is Measured. “When vision is written as 6/6 the first 6 is the eye to chart viewing distance of 6 meters. Then the second number “6” is the name the bottom line of letters on the eye-chart. This line has the smallest letters and is called the 6/6 line. Only people who have good vision can see this line from the 6 meter viewing distance.”

8 “Haptic: Relating to the sense of touch in all its forms” (Mark Paterson, 2007, p.xi) 9 “Cutaneous: Pertaining to the skin itself or the skin as a sense organ. Includes sensation of pressure, temperature and pain.”

(Mark Paterson, 2007, p.xi) 10 “Tactile: Pertaining to the skin itself or the skin as a sense organ. Includes sensation of pressure, temperature and pain” (Mark Paterson, 2007, p.xi)

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the distance receiver. He has a more in-depth explanation of the tactile related to the skin in his session Thermal Space, “ Some of the more subtle sensing (and communicating) qualities of the skin are commonly overlooked. These are the qualities which also relate to man’s perception of space” (Hall,1966, p.54).

Hall once investigated how the blind employ their sense in an experiment that attempted to understand sensitivity to radiated heat. During the experiment, the blind informants mentioned the airflow around the windows and how the current of air drew their attention to their nonvisual navigation, contributing to a reliable spatial mapping of their location. Therefore, he “had reason to believe that it was more than heightened sense of hearing that enabled this group to navigate so successfully.” (Hall, 1966, p.59)

Fig.2 Crystal Ice Plants [online] Available at <http://www. wtfcanieat.com/recipe/crystalice-plant-salad-with-edibleflowers/> [Accessed 7 December 2018]

In Touch and Blindness 11, the perception of sighted people is described as multimodal. They rarely use a singular sensory system to perceive information. They rely on their vision to guide tactual exploration or pattern perception. The combination of these two factors brings sighted individuals being more efficient in perceiving spatial information. There are, of course, some contradictions in the discussion of the relationship between vision and touch. (Heller, 2008, p.4)There is an example that implies visual perception creates false or illusionary perception: Crystal Ice Plants (fig.2) look dewy though they are hard to touch and dry. As a result, “Touch is an accurate and fast modality.”(Heller, 2008, p.3) Vision is undoubtedly an excellent sense for spatial experience. However, there also can be little doubt that spatial perception of congenitally blind or early blind individuals can be superb without the assistance of vision. Congenitally blind people are presumably incapable of using visual imagery in perceiving the space, but their imagery could still be spatial when it derives from other sensory experiences than imagery that is specifically visual in nature. (Heller et al., 2008, p.5). She found that individuals, who are in the absence of vision, showed a better performance in solving the Piagetian water-level problem12 than the 11 Susanna Millar “Processing Spatial Information From Touch and Movement: Implications From and for Neuroscience” in “Touch and Blindness: psychology and neuroscience” 12 Morton A. Heller, 2008, Picture Perception and Spatial Cognition in Visually Impaired People, pp.53. “Piaget’s water-level problem was devised as a measure of a child’s understanding of the horizontal and vertical frames of reference (Piaget & Inhelder,1956). Piaget tested this

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normal-sighted individuals. It infers that the blind and visually impaired possess the vast potential to develop sophisticated spatial reasoning that goes beyond the senses of sight. (Heller, 2008, p.53) Inclusive design (Universal Design) An early definition characterizes inclusive design as “the design of products and environments to be usable to the greatest extent possible by people of all ages and abilities”(Connell et al.,1997). In the mid-90s the underlying performance requirements of universal design had been identified. The resulting principles of Universal Design13 (Connell et al., 1997), has since become the internationally referenced definition.

One of the principles is Perceptible Information: All essential perception information should be provided to ensure effective communication 14.

The description here didn’t imply the perceptible experience. Steinfeld suggests redefining inclusive design as a process that facilitates a population diversity through bettering human performance, health and wellness, and social participation. Accordingly, the eight Goals of Universal Design (Body Fit, Comfort, Awareness, Understanding, Wellness, Social Integration, Personalization, and Cultural Appropriateness) has emerged. The first four are all directly related to human performance15 , and there is a strong relationship between the first four Goals and the other four(2012, p.56). Hence, if we, as designers, enhance the spatial perception experience, it will contribute to the overall improvement of human performance, thereby increasing the user’s sense of participation while reducing the sense of alienation. A space of tactile enhances the impression of the perceivers on the site, creating a sense of participation and engagement. Pallasmaa once depicted his irresistible movements towards the concrete wall and felt the smoothness and the temperature of the wall skins with his hands in Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute. He appreciates our skin’s dependable precision when tracing the temperature and he suggests that the pleasure of skin equals the sense of home16(2005,p.58).

Methods According to the theoretical research above, the case study is an analysis of the spatial tactile experience in the Botanical Garden through the lens of the blind and visually impaired. By understanding how and to what extent certain spatial elements can affect the reception of understanding by showing children a glass container that was half-full of water. The child was asked to anticipate how the water level would look in a tilted glass. Understanding was tested by asking the child to draw in the water level in a line drawing of a tilted jar.”

13 The principle includes: Equitable Use, Flexibility in Use, Simple and Intuitive, Perceptible Information, Tolerance for Error, Low Phys 14 Connell, et al., 1997. “The building should provide all essential information in a variety of modes (e.g., written, symbolic, tactile, verbal) to ensure effective communication with all users regardless of their sensory abilities. The information provided must be presented with sufficient contrast to surrounding conditions so that it is distinguishable from its context and decipherable in all its various modes of presentation.”

15 Edward Steinfeld & Jordana L. Maisel, 2012, p. 95. “Human performance is the ability of people to complete activities and tasks.”

16 “A sense of homecoming has never been stronger for me than when seeing a light in the window of my childhood house in a snow-covered landscape at dusk, the memory of warm interior gently warming my frozen limbs.”- Juhani Pallasmaa. “The Eyes of Skin”

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spatial information by the blind through touch, this paper will help the comprehension of touch-inclusive design in relation to the inclusive design for the selected demographic.

This paper will apply two methodologies. The first is based on the concept of James Spradley’s Ethnography Interview and Participant Observation, to organize a walk in the Botanical Garden with a blind people, through the observation of the motion and the recording of the dialogues in the walking experience process, additionally with an interview with the informant based on her description of her linedrawing refers to her impression of the walking journey. The second is Site-Writing based on Jane Rendell’s concept of the architecture of art criticism referring to the collection and organization materials from the walk with the blind.

Ethnography Interview and Participant Observation Ethnographic Interview is a type of qualitative research that combines participant observation and directed one-to-one interview, by building up a rapport and respect relation for a genuine ‘meeting of minds’(Heyl, 2001, p.369).

Spradley regards the way that we withdraw from our cultural background, temporarily neglect our own “socially inherited ethnocentrism” (1979,p.3) when we are investigating a specific object or group’s realities, as a systematic social science research method. He also suggests that the researcher is learning from the respondent rather than studying about(1979, p34), which means interviewees are empowered to shape the researcher’s content and more. In the case study, it will be a learning process when I walk with the blind in the Botanical Garden.

Referring to Spradley’s systematic treatment of the research method(1979, p.41), the qualitative research can list as the following steps: 1. Locating an informant A blind informant is necessary for the touch-inclusive study. Sighted respondents whose eyes are blindfolded, can’t be the benchmark for this case study, since they have the preset images(Heller et al., 2001, p.12). Seek a blind person through IBOS17 to participate in the walking experience with the authorization of process recording.

2. Organize a route for the walk in Botanical Garden In order to gain as much valuable information as possible, related to the tactile experience, the route should gather more factors(indoor and outdoor, ups and downs) which potentially affects the touch perception.

3. Participant observation: accomplish a walking through the Botanical Garden with the blind. Record the process with videos and photographs.

17 Instituttet for Blinde og Svagsynede in Copenhagen

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Engage myself in the walk will ensure a thorough observation of the informant’s words and motions. It is also legitimate to approach the genuine condition when a blind people’s experience in the Garden is independent without verbal assistance.

4. Request the informant for a drawing based on her impression of the walk and have a conversation with her about it.

The drawing is expected to help the informant to sort out her memories of the walk, as well as to inspire to put forward more descriptive questions.

5.Site-writing: ‘Walking With The Blind’ Use a writing method to configure the specific Botanical Garden based on the walk with the blind.

Site-Writing Site-Writing is a method coined by Jane Rendell18 that a site criticism is no longer “write about the place,” but “writing as the place” (2010, p.242).

She suggests that writing, especially about art criticism is a special architectural practice, which involves the process of thinking, designing and constructing. In short, it can be understood as the constructing an architecture by writing(2010,p.18).

Rendell argues that the production of art criticism is a situated practice(2010, p.1-2). Thus the situatedness-encounter with the site first and the ‘close readings’ which related to my understanding about the space as a designer would be one of the references for the analysis.

Rendell offers five different configurations to conduct the Site-Writing19, each one both architecturally and spiritually(2010, p.1).

One of the configuration “To and Fro” (Rendell, 2010, p. 59) can be a proper method to shape the writing for ‘the walk with the blind in Botanical Garden.’ “To and Fro” is a way to configure the writing through exploring the materiality and movement across boundaries, by playing with a changing fluctuation of ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘she/he’ to and fro across the space to suggest the particular position in the space(2010, p.19).

18 Jane Rendell, Professor of Architecture of Art in The Bartlett School of Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment. SiteWriting: The Architecture of Art Criticism, 2010. I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. 19 Jane Rendell, 2010, Site-Writing: The Architecture of Art Criticism, pp18-20. “1.Triangular Structures with Variable Thirds; 2.To and Fro; 3.A Rearrangement; 4.That Which Keeps Coming Back; 5.Decentring/ Recentring”

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Her narratives in the first person Environment description in the thirsd person

Her narratives in the first person Environment description in the thirsd person

Since the walk in the Botanical Garden will be in one route, it is so much more related to the movements of the blind crossing the boundaries. The case study can be a ‘blend-in’: materially representation based on the observation of the walk and narratives of the blind from the interview.

The positions of the site will be superimposed by changing the first and the third person’s narratives, corresponding to the quotation of blind informant’ words and the architectural descriptions of the spaces. (fig.3)

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Fig.3 Configuration for "Walking with the Blind"

The Palm House

Cactic and Succulents Greenhouse

Orchids, Begoniad and Bromeliads Greenhouse

The Rock Garden

The lack

Fig.4 Route arrangement in the Botanical Garden

Case Study The walking journey started at entrance area near Nørreport Station, passing through the grassy sitting area, crossed the Rock Garden with a large collection of the Alpine plants, visited the row of greenhouses(Cacti and Succulents House, Orchids House, Begonias and Bromeliads House), end up in the Palm House.(fig.4) Visually impaired informant: Lykke Vedsted Sight condition: Lost her sight since six years old and now almost completely blind.

Job: Massage Therapist Age: 38-year-old Profile: 1.8 meters tall She was walking with her assistant Ann while usually walks with her guide dog. Ann was simply playing a role in leading the road for Lykke rather than verbally describing information.

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Fig 5 The main road pavement

Fig 6 Main road and the lake

Fig 7 At the entrance of the Rock Garden

Fig 8 sketch on the stone stairs

Fig 9 The pavement of the ramp

Fig 10 The stairs lead to the hill from the ramp

Fig 11 The road leading upwards the hill

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Walking with the Blind 10 a.m. 28 November 2018 5℃ /-2℃ Partly sunny and patchy clouds, breezy Along the main road Lykke wore a pair of sunglasses, gloves on her hands, the scarf was tightly wrapped around her neck. She was holding a cane in her right hand, and left hand crossed Ann’s arm.

They began to walk, side by side, along the gravel road, where the trees on both sides were far apart. Lykke’s cane was exploring the ground forward, sweeping across the grass, along the curbstones and the gravel(fig.5). The main road is about 2.5-meter-wide, with grass, and bushes scatter on both sides (fig.6). They walked in an even pace and didn’t pause. When they started downhill, they walked with larger steps.

“The most thing that I experienced is the pavement, the ups and downs and the traffics.

For me, it can be a parking lot or a normal park. Since it is winter, I cannot smell the flower scent, I do not know what to touch because I cannot imagine without Ann’s guide. If I want to feel the flowers all on myself, I need to put my hands and knees on the floor, or I always need to use my cane to approach everything to detect the grass and the stones.”

Across the Rock Garden The Rock Garden is covered with a hill of alpine plants. There is a narrow stream at its entrance, flowing down from the top. The entrance path (fig7.)is an upward staircase, 1-meter-wide. Each step has a thick stone slab as its edge; the step surfaces covered with small paving stones, the depth of each step is around 2 meters. The plants on both sides are growing in between the thin slates’ gaps. Most of the alpine plants are rather low with small labels for species description. The width of the steps can only accommodate two people side by side. Lykke walked very carefully and her cane kept giving the hint that when she needed to lift the feet and where was the edge of the path. The walking rhythm here was: step-flat-step-flat-step-… (fig.8) “I heard the water running when we walked up the stairs. It traversed the rocks, so it tripped over a lot. It is a nice sound. I really like it.”

After the steps, there follows a ramp with the stone pavement. This ramp is around 1.5-meter-wide, with large rocks on both sides for retaining soil(fig.9). After a short walk on this gradual ramp, her cane groped to slate stairs on the right, then they turned and started to step on another stairs(fig.10). The path became narrower, with large stones on both sides.

Lykke slowed down the speed when her cane encountered the steps (fig.11). The walking rhythm here was: step-step-step-flat-step-step-

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Fig 12 Path crosses the hill

Fig 13 A bunch of lavender brushed Lykke's pants.

Fig 14 The downwards stairs

Fig 15 The turning point of the stairs.

Fig 16 The bark mulch surface surface.

Fig 17 The spiral stairs made from wood.

Fig 18 Mainroad surface.

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step-flat…(fig.12). Suddenly a cluster of lavender stretched out of the road, brushing both Lykke’s cane and pants, she did not stop(fig.13).

“I can hear the church bell from the other side, the city noises, ducks sometimes and birds in general.”

Starting downhill, they relaxed the pace. It is a long slope surrounds the hillside. The width of the slope is rather broad. Ann led Lykke to find the narrow downhill steps made from stone slabs(fig.14). Lykke was especially careful when she encountered some abruptly narrow at the corner (fig.15). The lane appears differently after the stairs with a bark mulch surface (fig.16). The road surface remains softness until meeting a cypress, which linked another downwards steps. Lykke stopped in front of the cypress and pointed the cane to the trunk, and its tip had touched the longitudinally cracked bark.

“I can hear the tree! I could sense it when we before we walked down the stairs. The trunk has blocked the wind and reflected the sound of the wind.”

The cypress equals a rotating center of the downhill staircase. The stepped filling continues to be bark mulch restrained by a thick edging trunk and the in-between boundary of the stairs, and the soil is a line of dried thick trunks(fig.17).

“The ground surfaces have been changing from time to time, gravels, then tiles. Then surface turned into a very soft as if I was stepping in the forest when we walked around the tree.”

Stepping out of the Rock Garden, they returned to the main path, which is around 2-meter-wide, paved with flat soil covered with fallen twigs(fig.18). Lykke was walking in the middle of a dense plantation and an open lawn(fig.19).

“Some spaces were closed up by the bushes while some places were very open.”

Fig 19 Two sides of the main road towards the greenhouses.

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Fig 20 The growing area against the wall and the sloping glass roof

Fig 21 The growing area of the small succulent pants which are against the facade of the green house

Fig 23 The begonia plants fills up the greenhouse.

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Following the path rounding the far left, they finally found the entrance of the cactus greenhouse.

Through the greenhouses

Fig 22 Plastic door curtains.

The greenhouse is covered with a single-sloping glass roof and the irrigation and insulated pipes running through beneath it, paved with irregular purple stones (fig.20). The first greenhouse of the cactus and succulents is dry and a little warmer than outside. The section to Lykke’s right accommodates the smaller scale plants isolated by a 1.1-metertall glass (fig.21). The left side is the section where the giant cacti and succulents are growing against a pale yellow-washed wall. The exit leads to a bleak corridor which links to the next greenhouse’s door, veiled by a plastic insulation curtain.

“When we got inside, there were plastic curtains I had to walk through.”(fig.22) The humidity and heat waves came out at the moment when they opened the glass door to the room of luxuriantly green. They were walking slowly through the path filled with greeneries on both sides. (fig.23) “It’s humid.”

There was a wire-like plant with thick thorns growing at the exit. Lykke gave little attention to it even though it scratched her coat (fig.24).

“I can hear the drops of water dribbling on the leaves, and I can also feel them patting on my skin, The drops that falling on the leaves sounded like raining of grains, so soothing.”

Then they walked out of the small greenhouses and ready to visit the Palm House.

Fig 24 The plant with thick thorns.+sketch 17

Fig 25 The stairs towards the Palm House

Fig 27 The plants kept touching Lykke.

Fig 28 Lykke walked upwards on her own with the support of the railing 18

Around the Palm House The Palm House is on a terrace suggesting its main status in the Garden.

They stepped onto to the main staircase with handrails made of cement slab on the sides and a metal railing in the middle. (fig.25)

Fig 26 The Palm House's pavements

High temperature and humidity create a sense of rainforest instantly. It is much more spacious with a centrally high ceiling, a metal gridding glass dome. Two main paths cross through the house; one is a path of gridding steel slab circles the whole greenhouse, one is a stone slab cross-shaped paths in the middle on top of the layer of water. (fig.26) The whole room is full of tropical vegetation.

“I do not mind that the plants come and move, brushing my head, because I had my glasses on so I was not worried about my eyes.”

Leaves of different heights, continually tapped the waterdrops on Lykke’s head, shoulders, and pants. She didn’t evade. (fig27) “When we walked pass, I could sense the plants where they were clustered or open.”

Two white cast iron spiral stairs situate against the opposite side of the entrance, leading to the elevated pedestrian annular path.

Lykke stopped before at the stairs, starting to take off her scarf and untie the zipper of her jacket. The spiral staircase is so steep and narrow to accommodate two persons. Ann put Lykke’s hand on where the balustrade starts. Lykke started to walk on her own (fig.28).

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Fig 30.

Lykke's hand kept exploring the plants surround the handrail.

Fig 31.

"The plant door frame".

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Fig 29 The beginning and the end part of the handrail of the spiral stairs.

The handrail is in the continuously flat strip, starting with a spiral shape, ends up directly turning into the railing for the elevated path (fig.29).

“The texture of the handrail was rough but smooth; it was a nice texture to touch.”

The elevated path is about 1-meter-wide paved by modular cast-iron slabs. The railing had been added to 1.1 meters by a cylindrical railing, paralleled to the original thin and flat railing. Since the new railing detaches from the old one, Lykke lost the continuous support of railing.

Ann helped her to find the handrail again.

“When I was walking upstairs, the leaves are introducing themselves to me all the time.

I was able to explore the space at my own pace because of the continuous railing. There were very big but very thin leaves, small leaves, and long thick leaves. I could feel the plants that move around the handrail. The image in my head was the plants were saying hello to me.”

The continuous railings are constantly interrupted by a variety of plants. Lykke was touching every leaf that surrounds the armrest. She encountered a variety of shapes of leaves, claw-shaped, raindrop-like, large pieces, heart-shape, slender, narrowly elliptical and moth-damaged.

The welcoming from the plants also provided an abundant texture for ‘hand-shaking’: sharp, smooth, rough, soft, hard or with thorns. Some of the branches were bent, extended and confusingly surrounding the railing (fig.30). Her hand carefully pondered every leaf or branch that touched her skin.

“One of the plants was with thorns, it felt funny, it was not prickling, so it hurts, but it was so special that attracted me to touch.”

She walked down to the ground floor with the other spiral stairs.

“Birds were singing all the time.”

While crossing the “jungle”, Lykke experienced a lot of ‘door frames’ made from the combination of plants. She kept repeating the movements of bending over-leaning-forward-stretching. (fig.31)

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“I can feel there was much blank place over my head, so I sometimes clicked in order to hear how it was around me.”

At the moment when exiting through the double doors, the cold air quickly brought back the impression of the Nordic winter from the temporality of the tropical hot and humid.

“The temperature was different from inside to outside. Different rooms have different temperatures and humidity.”

“Outside I notice a lot more of the ground and the surface, but inside there are not many differences, mostly it was the smooth metal and tiles, so that was not the main part for inside.”

Standing on the terrace overlooking the iced pool, and the Botanical Garden in the distance where they had just traveled, and the rear city fabric.

“I am a more ‘indoor person’ than an ‘outdoor person’. I feel safe inside than I go outside because I know there are boundaries. Give me a sense that it is this place that I need to be aware of, I do not need to be aware of what is outside.”

“I would like to go there one more time. I would like to know more about the Botanical Garden.”

Endnote: The third person’s descriptions base on the spatial elements’ features and the status that is relevant to the informant’s spatial engagement. The narratives written in the first person are transcribed from the interview with Lykke when she was describing her drawing (fig.32).

Fig 32.

Lykke’s drawing of her impression of her walking experience in Botanical Garden 22

Discussion Outdoor versus Indoor Comparing the haptic experience of outdoor and indoor from the above case study, the indoors tactile perception for the blind people was more immediate and subtle, while the outdoors haptic perception was more distant and general. This phenomenon has a tight relation with Hall’s concept about the sensory dimension. Tactile sensation is the most direct sense, not only in close proximity but also in the distance perception.

When the place is open, the distance information of the haptic will gain from the skin. If the place is relatively closed, it will empower the proximity of haptic perception, which will be more subtle.

When Lykke was walking outdoor, most of her haptic perception was not related to the botanical theme, but she was able to sense the other element, such as the pavements’ changes, ups and downs, turning and straight, tree’s position. Referring to Hall’s knowledge about how do the blind individuals sense the air current to infer the spatial location. She could sense there was a tree in front of her since the airflow was blocked.

Another factor was the airflow contrast of the open lawn and the density of plants, also contributes the spatial reasoning hints to the blind.

The indoor experience is more related to immediate tactile perception, according to Hall and Paterson’s knowledge about the cutaneous perception, Lykke was possible to distinguish the transition of each greenhouse from the humidity and temperature fluctuation. She could also notice the wide and clustered contrast of the space ascribed to the density of the plants magnified the airflow across the plants’ blockade or liberation. Moreover, because of the tight surroundings by the plants, Lykke gained more subtle information which is even being regardless from the people with the sound sight. The dewy leaves kept patting on her skin, the ‘door frame’ made from the plants modified her movements.

What is more, she had opportunities to discover the spatial element of the botanical theme by herself. She could touch the plants or being touched by the plants.

As she said, the Botanical Garden would be an ordinary park for her if it was without the experience of the greenhouses. The borders of the greenhouses gave her a sense of security; thereby she could put more attention on the sense of touch. The high concentration of touch experience inside the greenhouses contributed her a more profound impression of the Botanical garden. Therefore, it is possible to improve the indoor experience when it is lack of effectively spatial-inclusive experience, by learning the suble sensation given by indoor area. It is also testified the goal of inclusive design, the participation, and engagement.

When the experience has deepened the bind people’s impression, they are naturally forming a stronger sense of engagement.

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Touching from passively to positively Most of the time, touch experience in the walking is passive, for instance, the humid and warmth brushed her skin. Regarding the touch perception is the immediate perception, therefore, the blind people when they do not have the sight perception to assist them, if they have an agency which not only necessary to an assistant, they can still generate initially will to touch. In the greenhouse, due to the planting density is very large, the flora will “introduce themselves” to her.

The handrail in the palm house ‘tempt’ her to touch the plants. The open and closed area changes raised her curiosity about the spatial scale.

Again the perceptible experience can develop the users’ human performance, to build up the user’ social participation. The potential tactile agency can trigger the way to touch positively. It is also accordant with Pallasmaa’s manifesto about creating a space of touch to weaken the alienation feeling.

Therefore, if the spatial scales, organization, textures and those elements which related to tactile experience, can be taken into account within the design process, it will better enhance the spatial participation for the blind people and even other people with normal vision, to realize the Inclusive experience.

Multimodality Senses Included According to the theory from Moller and Paterson, perception is modality, human rarely exclusively employ one sense, therefore, in the walking journey, there was naturally much information related to the other senses.

From the study through tactile experience of the blind and the visually impaired, there is already much inspiring information. It would also be very fruitful to understand the relationship between the other senses and inclusive design.

Conclusion Beginning with my own sensory experience, then associated with the tactile experience of the blind and visually impaired, expecting to deepen the understanding of how the spatial design triggers touch through studying the haptic experience for blind people in the Botanical Garden.

By looking into the theory of the blindness and the touch, I learned the close relationship between the blind and the sense of touch; With the cognition of the principles and goals of the inclusive design, I gain the knowledge that the social engagement can be achieved by creating a great

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extent of inclusive sensory experience.

With the back-up of this knowledge, by applying the Ethnography Interview and participant observation, I had conducted an experiencewalking with the blind in the Botanical Garden. Then, concerning the form of Site-Writing, an article “Walking with the Blind” has been configurated based on the arrangement of the observation and interview results, from both the blind people’s and a bystander’s perspective.

Through observation and analysis, the blind people’s haptic experience in the Botanical Garden can be obtained at close or far distances.

When the close touch is triggered, they may have a deeper sense of spatial participation. The tactile perception in the greenhouses is more evident and profound. When blind people sense the space, they will employ more than only the tactile organ, so the further understanding of the multisensory spatial experience would be very instructive and inspiring for the Inclusive Design for the blindness. By summarizing the architectural elements that related to tactile sensory experience, I have great inspiration and cognition of inclusive design. Thus, in the design stage, taking the sensory experience of the touch into consideration of the arrangement of the space and the dealing with the details can help to realize a touch-inclusive space, which can enhance the spatial participation of blind people and even more users.

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