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For the creation of inclusive design solutions, designers require relevant knowledge about a diversity of users throughout the design process. Besides understanding users' needs and expectations, the ways in which users perceive and experience the environment contain valuable knowledge for designers. Since users' perceptions and experiences are mainly tacit by nature, they are much more difficult to communicate and therefore more difficult to externalize. Hence, more insight is needed into the ways designers can build knowledge on Universal Design through direct user contact. In a project called 'Light up for all' architecture students are asked to design a light switch and socket, elegant, usable and understandable to the greatest extent possible by everyone. Two workshops with user/experts are organized in the first stages of the design process in which students could gain insight into users' experiences and perceptions through direct contact. Three data collection techniques are used to analyze the teams' design processes: (1) a design diary, (2) observations of the workshops and (3) a focus group. By means of analyzing collected qualitative data, we have identified three different design aspects that affect designers' UD knowledge building process. First, findings give indications on values and limitations of working with selected design artefacts when externalizing users' experiences. Second, the value of stories clearly affected designers' deeper understanding about users' experiences. Finally, results show that in some situations, designers encountered contradictory information between observations and verbal conversations. These insights may help researchers to better understand designers' process of building knowledge on UD from users' experiences and perceptions, which may result in better incorporating users' experiences when designing for everyone.

Given that we live in a time within a growing competitive healthcare market, the customer experience and healing opportunities are on top of the priority list. However, little attention has been dedicated on how to merge the disciplines of architecture, healthcare and management to create healthcare environments to enhance the customer experience and the healing process. The goal of this paper is to explore how design can foster customer-perceived intimacy within a healthcare context to achieve enhanced customer outcomes, such as customer well-being. Understanding the importance of customer- perceived intimacy is paramount, as customers are constantly exposed to intimate situations. The study suggest that there is potential for such situations to be wrought with problems involving complexities associated with human cognition, emotions, physiological responses, and behaviors. A literature review is undertaken to highlight the antecedents and the short-term and long-term outcomes of customer- perceived intimacy. As a result, the paper provides a conceptual framework that raises many questions that need to be answered. In doing so, a solid foundation for future inquiry has been laid.

When architecture is experienced as very inclusive and comfortable by a diversity of users, one may wonder how the designer managed to build up the necessary Universal Design knowledge, that is, the knowledge needed to successfully translate diverse user needs into one inclusive design result. In this paper, we aim to learn from practitioners who successfully took up this challenge. The design process of three best practices for Universal Design were reconstructed and analyzed in order to examine the ways the architects had set up the design context which allowed them to build knowledge on Universal Design related to a specific design project. Next to an analysis of design materials, twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, including the design team, client and end-users. Findings indicate three different levels that can directly affect the design context in which knowledge on Universal Design can be built throughout the design process: the (1) individual, (2) interactive and (3) integrative level. This resulted in the development of an overarching framework, which we named the UDI3-framework, to provide more insight into architects’ complex process when building knowledge on Universal design. As such, it can also facilitate practitioners when adopting a Universal Design strategy.

This paper reflects on multisensorial and multimodal processes by considering spatial design differently through three case studies in Canada and Belgium that involved persons with visual impairments. Our research provokes alternative ways of ‘seeing’ and ‘being’ in the world and we assert that the normative ways that designers think, act, and design for/with people who have disabilities can be shifted when considering ableism and techné together. Our studies and methods differ from other design processes and methods, in that we situate design within an understanding of ableism and techné, where we encourage designers to reflect upon their ability biases in order to break assumptions about the abilities and disabilities of users and/or codesigners. Through exploring, observing and creating, nuanced examinations into ability and techné are revealed that support an intimate bond and an empathic response towards shaping the designers’ understanding of participants embodied and practical knowledge. Our case study research expands the ways of knowing and doing in codesign through ableism and techné with people who are visually impaired, to create inspiring and meaningful designs through multisensorial processes that are inclusive of ‘seeing’ in order to spatialise differently. This work was supported by the Killam Trusts [Cornerstone Grant]; Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen/ FWO Flanders) [Grant]; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [Doctoral Fellowship].

This research was supported by Politecnico di Milano and Hasselt University. The authors are grateful to Hasselt University, which provided the opportunity for conducting part of the research with the Belgian scientific community.

Energy efficiency and universal design in housing are high on policy and research agendas. Although in both domains there are policies and programs which aim to convince homeowners to adopt energy efficiency measures or universal design, they have had limited results and rarely take into account the impact on the other domain. Better integration could lead to more sustainable and appealing housing concepts to emerge, resulting in more effective policy. Currently there is scarce research that investigates the integration in private housing of energy efficiency and lifelong living, a physical outcome of universal design principles in housing. This research asks what energy efficiency and lifelong living measures are currently integrated by homeowners and what were the motivations behind the adoption? Nine owner-occupied, privately commissioned, single-family homes in Flanders, which are built to Passive house standards and have also implemented lifelong living measures were examined. Mixed methods were used for analysis including semi-structured interviews with homeowners, architectural drawings and video recording or photographs of a home walk-through. Inhabitants tended to focus on the practical long term effect of their choices on their own families in parallel or above societal impacts of sustainability. It was easier for them to find information on energy efficiency than on universal design. The participants viewed the two fields as either unrelated or as parts of the same goal and they saw no significant conflicts in their integration. Meanwhile, indifference or path dependency from architects and contractors presents resistance rather than facilitation towards residents’ goals, particularly on universal design.

This paper outlines the evaluation of a print-based Design for All (DfA) manual. The purpose was to understand if and how a DfA manual can be used as a tool to inspire students (future architects) in designing an inclusive project to transform theory into practice. The DfA manual has been used and tested during a workshop that took place at the UDweek 2016 in Hasselt, Belgium. Our results show that the manual was favorably received, particularly in the areas of the manual’s visual presentation. Conversely, short guidelines, as mean to transfer knowledge, was perceived as too prescriptive. Furthermore, more information to generate insights on users’ needs are required and the static format of the manual can’t satisfy the different ways students prefer to access information. The research provides interesting criteria on how to create a more relevant and useable DfA manual; however, further studies are required to elaborate upon these.

Energy Efficiency (EE) and Universal Design (UD) are topics high on governmental policy and research agendas which have been considered separately both in research and practice. This research hypothesizes that comfort can be a conceptual link that can represent both EE and UD features. In order to understand the broader meaning of comfort at home from the perspective of inhabitants in the context of home renovations, and to test our hypothesis, we conducted 3 qualitative studies with different user groups. The results confirm that users associate with comfort all aspects related to EE as well as with most aspects in UD. In addition, results indicate that EE can be an integral part of UD if both are considered from a comfort point of view. These are presented in a theoretical framework for comfort that can be used to further study a potential integration of the EE and UD fields.

This research questions the importance of sound in relation to our city experiences. By means of analysing the characteristics of a soundscape in the city of Antwerp this study identifies Antwerp's genius loci. Moreover it is stated that soundscape, cultural heritage and public spaces amplify each other. Design concepts and strategic design methods can adopt soundscape in historical urban spaces in order to increase the quality of life. It is recommended that architects and urban planners interpret the aural score of the built environment in order to compose significant sustainable urban cities. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

This article sets out to demonstrate that architects’ and other designers’ visual ways of knowing may come with a considerable risk. It risks to favour visual qualities over non-visual qualities, but also cognition over embodiment in how space is understood and conceived. Their designerly ways of knowing thus may as well be viewed as designerly ways of not knowing—of disregarding the bodily experience of the built environment. This disregard becomes especially clear when considering the spatial experience of persons who are blind, as they are able to appreciate sounds, smells or haptic qualities designers may not be attuned to. Although the article focuses on design in architecture, it points out that the underlying rationale may be relevant for other design domains as well, including urban design. ispartof: Journal of Urban Design vol:19 issue:3 pages:317-332 status: published

Policy and societal objectives indicate a large need for housing renovations that both accommodate lifelong living and significantly increase energy efficiency. However, these two areas of research are not yet examined in conjunction and this paper hypothesizes this as a missed opportunity to create better renovation concepts. The paper outlines a comparative review on research in Energy Efficiency and Universal Design in order to find the similarities and differences in both depth and breadth of knowledge. Scientific literature in the two fields reveals a disparate depth of knowledge in areas of theory, research approach, and degree of implementation in society. Universal Design and Energy Efficiency are part of a trajectory of expanding scope towards greater sustainability and, although social urgency has been a driver of the research intensity and approach in both fields, in energy efficiency there is an engineering, problem solving approach while Universal Design has a more sociological, user-focused one. These different approaches are reflected in the way home owners in Energy Efficiency research are viewed as consumers and decision makers whose drivers are studied, while Universal Design treats home owners as informants in the design process and studies their needs. There is an inherent difficulty in directly merging Universal Design and Energy Efficiency at a conceptual level because Energy Efficiency is understood as a set of measures, i.e. a product, while Universal Design is part of a (design) process. The conceptual difference is apparent in their implementation as well. Internationally energy efficiency in housing has been largely imposed through legislation, while legislation directly mandating Universal Design is either non-existent or it has an explicit focus on accessibility. However, Energy Efficiency and Universal Design can be complementary concepts and, even though it is more complex than expected, the combination offers possibilities to advance knowledge in both fields.

Besides the need for designers to build a strong body of user knowledge within the domain of Universal Design (UD), linking knowledge about user needs and design practice is fundamental for increasing its uptake. Designers often experience difficulties when transferring user needs into inclusive design solutions. The tacit nature of user needs considerably complicates this transfer. Therefore, this paper examines how designers may create and apply knowledge on UD. Concepts from Knowledge Management are used to shed new light on designers’ knowledge creation process about user needs. By relating UD processes to Nonaka’s SECI model, an analytical framework is proposed in which four modes of developing knowledge enable us to analyse the continuous dialogue between tacit and explicit knowledge from user to designer. As such, this paper explores to which extent the SECI model offers interesting insights into designers’ knowledge creation process on user needs.

In the context of inclusive design, this paper reports on a photo-ethnographic study that is part of a wider inquiry into the haptic qualities of the built environment. To stimulate conversation with children born blind about their haptic spatial experiences, we invited them to take pictures of their daily living environment—a school for children with visual or hearing impairments or autism. The pictures taken by the blind children offer a unique perspective on how they experience the school environment. Non-visual triggers for taking pictures were both tangible (tactile, olfactory, auditory) and intangible (memories and knowledge) in nature. Besides offering insights into non-visual stimuli in the school, this study suggests that photo-ethnography may be a useful approach for communicating about sensory experience with children born blind and for overcoming a lack of vocabulary to articulate these experiences. Moreover, using the camera provoked sensory experiences and memories in general and revealed details on haptic perception in particular.

People living with certain disabilities are able to appreciate spatial qualities or detect obstacles that most architects are not always aware of. Therefore our research explores how the design process in architecture can be enriched by establishing a dialogue between architects/designers and people living with a disability. The paper reports on an attempt to extend this [theoretical] line of thought underlying our research to [the reality of] our daily work environment: the development of a master plan for a protected historic building on our university campus accommodating the student services. Since the student services need to be reachable by all students and the building is not integrally accessible, the question arises: is it possible to ensure that all students can independently reach, enter, interpret and use it? To address this complex matter in a systematic way, a framework is adopted that reconciles conservation and inclusion policy. One element in the framework is the involvement of people living with different disabilities. Their visits to the building reveal elements that architects may easily overlook or are rather unexpected: their perspective shows that making the building integrally accessible involves much more than overcoming differences in levels and cobblestones, and indicates directions to do so. Major issues identified can be largely addressed without touching the historic fabric of the building. These insights become highly influential in the formulation of the concept plan that is currently being negotiated. Awaiting its completion, implementation and evaluation, the reactions of the people involved so far strongly suggest that establishing a dialogue, however embryonic, between architects/designers and people living with a disability is experienced as highly valuable by both sides. ispartof: pages:209-218 ispartof: Proceedings of the 5th Cambridge Workshop on Universal Access and Assistive Technology pages:209-218 ispartof: Cambridge Workshop on Universal Access and Assisted Technology location:Cambridge (UK) date:22 Mar - 25 Mar 2010 status: published