Vison Disability Ability Workshop

      Universal design planning is what design students are taught to consider standard design practice now.  In learning about universal design and ADA standards we have been taught about wheel chair accessibility previously, but for us to move forward in our designs we are now learning to design for vision disability.
      To do this we were asked to experience our environment legally blind to learn personally what should be considered in our design. Groups of two went through the campus book store and to the library with dark glasses smeared with petroleum jelly, greatly impairing our ability to see. Major obstacles proved to be spaces with low contrast in color and texture, and stairs with poor contrast. Also small, low contrast, or complicated text shapes proved hard to decipher. Another problem with spaces we noted was their lighting.  It either was  very low and made contrast in spaces harder to pick up, or was very bright and irritating. Some good design we noted were dark red or bright green elevator walls with the contrast of the shiny elevator doors. The texture change and contrast helped us to understand there was a space change and guided us.   Also the in the library where there was very little value change in finishes, the stairs had dark strips of texture laid into their edges telling us where a plane change was and to step down.
     With this experience and extensive readings on vision disability, designing for vision disabilities according to ADA standards makes practical sense after experiencing it.

Habitat For Humanity: Union Town House Design

   
     Interior designers are concerned with social issues in our living environments along with the environment themselves. Helping to build and then design a Habitat home was a way to begin to express our concerns as student designers and do something about them.
    After helping to build a Habitat home this fall, we were asked in groups to design a home for Habitat to use in the future.  Designing and meeting with Habitat representatives was very exciting as groups of students developed sustainable and functional houses under 1200 square feet.  The home had to be fully wheel chair accessible, have a great room with living/kitchen/dining together, 3 bedrooms, and a garage.  Other considerations Habitat asked us to incorporate into our designs where sustainable building practices, like 24" on center stud construction and sustainable material choices in our finishes.
     This process helped us to learn how to work in groups as designers and split up our work, and how to come together an collaborate on a design.  Input from contractors was invaluable in this experience in learning how these home we designed would be constructed.  Specific things my team thought about was the volume of the space and using it to create transitions from space to space by making ceiling changes. We also planned for the home to take full advantage of the south sunlight exposure by putting our main living spaces in that side with many large windows. We places the garage of the home on the side of the home facing the highway to Pullman to act as a sound buffer for the home.
      Our design was also constrained by a budget and the materials selection and placement of the home on the lot all were specified to meet this budget.  Meeting a budget for the first time was a challenge.  It educated the group on how expensive materials really are along with the cost of the building construction it's self.  Over all this was a very rewarding experience and presenting it to Habitat at the end went very well.  The representatives who came love the finished work and were very engaged with our models of the homes and our display for them.  My team and I came away form this with great enthusiasm for what we do as designers.