24 Hour Universal Design Challenge 2010, Dublin, Ireland, organised by the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, National Disability Authority (NDA), 26-27 November 2010
Team E
Team leader: Ben Knapp
Design partner: Sinead Burke
The citiscape of the Grafton Street area can be confusing and overwhelming with limited access to information and services. For a person with any form of reduced ability, this often makes access impossible. The SOLAS project creates a network of aesthetically pleasing structures within the dense urban zone which not only combines necessary services but also re-designs these services to be accessible to the largest possible audience.
To implement this concept, different design approaches were employed, at different scales. The proposal utilises visual markers, in the form of obelisks, which function define principal and secondary entry points to the Grafton Street area. Their forms draw on existing landmarks in the cityscape, and serve also to create a set of spatial reference points.
They provide a range of accessible services, including a re-modelled inclusive ATM, information portals, accessible toilet facilities and a combined seating area. The portals also provide a simple, multi-user navigational facility. Each of these features has its own novel and unique design features making this project inclusive.
The essential features of SOLAS maximise inclusivity by rethinking design in response to unmet but identified. The ATM has been re-designed to allow for people of all abilities to interact with the cash function interfaces with greater privacy and functionality by including a tilting screen mechanism and inclusive multimodal interface The simple modification of allowing card, cash and receipt to function from the same slot was found to significantly increase the amount of people who can use the machine.
In response to the need for easy access to information, SOLAS includes communication portals with the same inclusive features as the ATM, allowing a large number of functions that includes an interface providing information (including accessibility) about shops and local services, such as bus and train timetables. The portal interfaces directly with the local business community through the use of a barcode way-finding system that can appear on business cards, in magazine ads and on the SOLAS itself.
Finally, the obelisk houses a toilet facility, designed to be enclosed aesthetically and unobtrusively within the structure. A larger-size unisex universal access layout uses a wc with electronically height-adjustable seat position.
The larger obelisks are positioned in a concentric seating area, which fixes them in the Streetscape and allows shoppers, workers and visitors to rest, meet and interact. Five SOLAS obelisks, three larger and two smaller, (providing information only) are proposed for the Grafton Street area. SOLAS achieves a unified cohesive design opening up the Dublin city centre for all.
