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Home > Journal > Issue Ten > A Response to Architects Disable: A Challenge to Transform A Response to
Architects Disable: A Challenge to Transform - Yvonne Farrell About fifteen years ago, I remember we watched an elderly gentleman topple as he tried to enter our local Library, his visit to the Library being a significant social event of his week. After we helped him to his feet, we reported the incident to the Librarian, who asked us to put our observations on paper, so that the Library staff could put pressure on the powers - that - be to allocate the funds to put in a much needed ramp. That was a long time ago and things have changed so much that it is now a legal requirement for every new public building to provide proper access. Such elderly gentlemen now gain access to Libraries, without the need to be rescued. That red brick & granite Library now has its own access ramp. We have just completed a school for five hundred secondary school students in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. The site given for the Project was on the side of a hill. In landscape terms, it was important for us that a sense of the original sloping hillside would form part of the everyday experience of all the students in the new school. It was our intention from the beginning of the design process to form a fluid and integrated circulation pattern that would be used by everyone - disabled and abled. The school is accessible by ramps, paths and steps which converge on the wide ramped space of the main entrance. Two main corridors, one at a higher level, the other 1125mm lower, are connected by two ramping corridors. Classrooms either look out towards the surrounding countryside or are wrapped around a series of courtyards. A strategically placed lift beside a stair connects to the Sports Hall, which is a further 1500mm below the lower corridor. Another school, which we have designed for Milford, Co. Donegal is also on a sloping site. When five or six hundred students are involved, we are very aware that we are, in fact, designing a small town, which works from 8.30am to 4pm. Schools also are used by the community in the evenings. This is an important aspect of schools, as they increase their role in providing more adult/senior citizen learning opportunities, especially as we as a society are living longer. Schools, as useful public buildings, must take difference, disability and age into account and ease of access can form the underlying framework of organisational and architectural decisions.
Architectural Association of Ireland |