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Our mission: to promote activity that develops and captures models of new practice for the built environment, led by the creativity and experiences of disabled and Deaf artists.
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project believes that thinking differently about disability (and ability) can open up the design of our built surroundings to new forms of creativity and critique. Instead of treating disabled people as merely a ‘technical’ and ‘legal’ problem for architecture and urban design, we show how starting from disability – from the rich differences that biodiversity and neuro-divergence bring – is a powerful creative force for design. We bring together disabled artists with built environment practitioners, educators, students and others to explore how valuing different ways of being in the world can offer innovative alternatives to conventional and mundane ‘access solutions’. And we investigate how designing from and with diverse bodies opens up important questions about who counts as ‘normal’, what kinds of bodies get taken notice of in design, and how to work towards architectural and built environment practices based on social and spatial justice.
For a more detailed explanation about these innovative ways of thinking and doing, go to Why DisOrdinary? To find examples of work we have done, go to Projects and read news updates on our Blog.
This is a fantastic sounding project. I’ve spent quite a number of occasions discussing how we might teach these kind of issues in architectural education – and this seems to me one of the first projects that is really interesting.
Prof. Harry Charrington, Head of Department of Architecture, University of Westminster, March 2017
The whole thing was truly inspirational. I thought every bit of it – both the days were immensely interesting and moving. I loved the workshop and all the presentations by you and the disabled artists – they were amazing.
Dr. Tanya Sengupta, Lecturer in Architectural History and Theory, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
The Dis/Ordinary Architecture Project is underpinned by an expanding network of talented disabled artists, as well as interested architectural and built environment educators, professionals and related experts. We work with built environment education, design practices and consultancies, and museums and galleries. We can offer talks and events, creative workshops, design charrettes and training programmes as well as a wide range of collaborative project possibilities.
Go to Our Services to see what we offer. Go to Who We Are to find our more about us, and to Contact for more information or if you would like to get involved.
A big thank you for yesterday. I came away energised and delighted by the diversity of views and the buzz created in the room. I would very much like to be part of the project going forward.
Joseph Young, DisOrdinary Architecture Project artist
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project is also building up an online resource bank to give built environment students, educators, practitioners and others easy access to exciting new ways of engaging with disability and difference. Crucially this is richly informed by the work of disabled artists and activists as well as by important and relevant work by Disability Studies scholars. Go to Resources to find readings and links about dis/ability, difference and the design of built space across both theory and practice, and see some examples of work created by collaborators and participants in DisOrdinary Architecture projects.
Below you can see one of the videos we made in 2017 to introduce our activities as part of an Arts Council funded first stage exploratory project called Disabled Artists Making Dis/Ordinary Spaces (DAMDO/S).
Please note: this video will open in the same window of your web browser. To return to The DisOrdinary Architecture Project website when you have finished viewing it, please click your web browser’s back button.