DisOrdinary Dialogues

What is the value of imperfect design?In this conversation, hosts Mandy and Tom explore concepts of the ‘imperfect’ and imperfect design beauty with three key guests: Jos Boys (DisOrdinary Architecture Co-Director), Grace Choi (Grace Choi Architecture Architect Director) and Nikki Dravers (REfUSE Café Food Partnership Co-ordinator), and contributions from staff and volunteers at the REfUSE Café in Chester Le Street.  As with each episode, this conversation builds on from our recent ‘Many More Parts than M!’ Compendium (launched in early 2024) and explories how we can engage with built environment accessibility in ways that take us beyond conventional checklists and design guidance.Episode Timestamps00:00 Soundbite0:28 Introduction1:15 Jos Boys on the Imperfect Design Principle14:38 Exploration of REfUSE CiC and those involved22:25 Are we in an Inclusion Emergency?32:35 Closing thoughtsTranscript for the conversation here.This episode was recorded and produced by Mandy Redvers-Rowe (Blind Theatre Producer) and Tom Walker (Partially Sighted Sound Engineer) for The DisOrdinary Architecture Project.Find out more about The DisOrdinary Architecture Project here. ‘The first compendium mentioned was ‘Many More Parts than M!’ from DisOrdinary Architecture. You can access the compendium here.The second book mentioned was Inclusion Emergency: Diversity in Architecture. Written by Grace choi and Hannah Durham. You can access the book here.

What is shared space? And can it work for everyone?In this conversation hosts Mandy and Tom explore ideas of (Un)Shared Spaces with five key guests: Zoe Partington (Co-Director, The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and CEO, DaDa), Denise Kennedy, (Access Co-ordinator, DaDa), Andrew de Silva (Director and Architect, David Miller Architects), Chithra Marsh (Director, Buttress), Kimberley Corrall (Associate, Buttress) and architectural students Thomas Lockley and Abbey Brady-Hoyle. As with each episode, this conversation builds on from our recent ‘Many More Parts than M!’ Compendium (launched in early 2024) and explories how we can engage with built environment accessibility in ways that take us beyond conventional checklists and design guidance. Find out more about the compendium here.Episode Timestamps00:00 Introduction01:12 Understanding ‘shared spaces’ with Zoe Partington07:36 Explorations of RIBA North and shared spaces in the design process20:26 Inclusion of ‘accessible design’ in architecture studies29:01 Explorations of RIBA North and shared spaces in the design process30:56 Closing thoughtsTranscript for the conversation here.This episode was recorded and produced by Mandy Redvers-Rowe (Blind Theatre Producer) and Tom Walker (Partially Sighted Sound Engineer) for The DisOrdinary Architecture Project.Find out more about The DisOrdinary Architecture Project here.

Disability Meets Architecture is a co-created podcast miniseries, enabling conversations that cross boundaries between architecture, Disability studies and related disciplines; and across theory and practice beyond the conventions of conventional access.Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This ‘project intro’ with Jos Boys (The DisOrdinary Architecture Project) and Aimi Hamraie (Critical Design Lab) takes place at the Round Tower, Rundetårn, in Copenhagen. It was recorded just as we were planning the series when Jos and Aimi found themselves in the city at the same time.This tower, completed in 1642 for Christian IV of Denmark, features an equestrian ramp which would enable a horse and carriage to rise 34.8m to the observatory at the top. This ramp is not accessible under design guidance. However, it highlights how a design feature, often associated with access, is reimagined as desirable, going as far as displacing the staircase as the primary way to move vertically up this 17th C. tower. It shows how thinking differently about how we move through space, beyond the human, beyond the upright human, can create different forms of pleasurable architecture.Aimi Hamraie (they/them) is the founder and director of Critical Design Lab, a multi-disciplinary and multi-institution arts and design collaborative rooted in disability culture. Aimi is author of Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability (University of Minnesota Press, 2017) and host of the Contra* podcast on disability and design. They are a 2022 United States Artists Fellow, Canada Research Chair in Technology, Society, and Disability and Associate Professor of Social Science at York University.Jos Boys (she/her) is the founder and co-director of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project with Zoe Partington. Jos was also part of Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative in the late 1970s and 80s in the UK. Through her work, Jos has co-authored and acted as editor/co-editor on a number of books including Disability, Space, Architecture: A Reader (2017), Doing Disability Differently: An alternative handbook on architecture, dis/ability and designing for everyday life (2014) and Making Space: Women and the Man Made Environment by Matrix (1984/2022). Jos is an Honorary Associate Professor at UCL (UK), and served as a Guest Professor at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen (2022–2025).A film accompanies this episode and is available on both DisOrdinary and Critical Design Lab’s websites.Transcript here: https://disordinaryarchitecture.co.uk/s/DMA-intro-Transcript.pdf____DMA is brought to you by The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and Critical Design Lab, with this miniseries funded by The Graham Foundation.Your hosts are Aimi Hamraie and Jos Boys, with Scar Barclay and Paul DeFazio supporting the series production. Ilana Nevins is our editor, with Scar finalising edits for the DisOrdinary Architecture version.Find out more about this project and related projects at disordinaryarchitecture.co.uk and criticaldesignlab.com.Find out more about Aimi’s work here: Websites: aimihamraie.com criticaldesignlab.com labsforliberation.orgFind out more about Jos’s work here: Websites: josboys.co.uk disordinaryarchitecture.co.uk matrixfeministarchitecturearchive.co.uk

Disability Meets Architecture is a co-created podcast miniseries, enabling conversations that cross boundaries between architecture, disability studies and related disciplines; and across theory and practice beyond the conventions of conventional access.Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘access washing,’ an expression coined by Stacey Milbern, considers the power dynamics in the design process and projects, where and how Disabled practitioners are involved, and to what extent ‘access’ is understood on a deep, systemic rather than superficial level.This episode features Karen L. Braitmayer, FAIA (she/her), a licensed architect and accessibility specialist who is a full-time wheelchair user with hearing loss. Karen founded Studio Pacifica, an access consultancy in Washington State which foregrounds Disabled practitioners.Karen is in conversation with Natasha Trotman (she/they), a UK-based Neurodivergent and disabled international Equalities Designer and Researcher advancing inclusive, accessible, evidence-led design with neurodivergent, disabled, and underserved communities. Natasha is a frequent collaborator with DisOrdinary Architecture.Transcript here.____DMA is brought to you by The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and Critical Design Lab, with this miniseries funded by The Graham Foundation.Your hosts are Aimi Hamraie and Jos Boys, with Scar Barclay and Paul DeFazio supporting the series production. Ilana Nevins is our editor, with Scar finalising edits for the DisOrdinary Architecture version.Find out more about this project and related projects at disordinaryarchitecture.co.uk and criticaldesignlab.com.Find out more about Karen’s work here: Website: StudioPacificaSeattle.com Instagram: @StudioPacificaSeattleFind out more about Natasha’s work here: Website: natashamtrotman.com Instagram: @trottykins

Disability Meets Architecture is a co-created podcast miniseries, enabling conversations that cross boundaries between architecture, disability studies and related disciplines; and across theory and practice beyond the conventions of conventional access.Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘care with teeth,’ takes its name from the expression “joy with teeth” in Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human (2024) by Cole Arthur Riley. It considers the plurality of care, what it means to fiercely care and be cared for, care as a radical embedded practice and one which brings with it at times conflict and challenge.This episode features Jeff Kasper (he/him), an artist, writer, and educator working across public art, design, and social practice. Jeff’s project ‘Wrestling Embrace’ (2017-present) uses physical contact, guided contemplation and embodied practices to navigate consent, conflict and care in interpersonal relationships.Jeff is in conversation with Anthony Clarke (he/him), Architect and Director of Austrailian architecture practice BLOXAS. BLOXAS has a radically empathetic and anti-hegemonic approach with their clients. Anthony is a co-editor with Judy Illes, Jos Boys and John Gardner of Neurodivergence and Architecture (2022)Transcript here.____DMA is brought to you by The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and Critical Design Lab, with this miniseries funded by The Graham Foundation.Your hosts are Aimi Hamraie and Jos Boys, with Scar Barclay and Paul DeFazio supporting the series production. Ilana Nevins is our editor, with Scar finalising edits for the DisOrdinary Architecture version.Find out more about this project and related projects at disordinaryarchitecture.co.uk and criticaldesignlab.com.Find out more about Jeff’s work here: Website: jeffkasper.coInstagram: @JeffKasperStudio.Find out more about Anthony’s work here: Website: bloxas.comLinkedin: Dr Anthony ClarkeImage credit: Sayher Heffernan

Disability Meets Architecture is a co-created podcast miniseries, enabling conversations that cross boundaries between architecture, Disability studies and related disciplines; and across theory and practice beyond the conventions of conventional access.Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, on ‘who counts,’ explores which bodyminds are thought of as productive. We are thinking about histories of systemic ableism and racism and how to go about challenging architecture’s understanding of diverse identity and lived experience, so that Disabled lives and experience is rightfully valued.This episode features Micha Frazer-Carroll (she/her), a writer and journalist who is a former editor of gal-dem magazine and founder of Blueprint magazine. Micha authored MAD WORLD: The Politics of Mental Health (2023), a call for radical politics and a revealing account of the ever changing construct of health under capitalism.Micha is in conversation with Samir Pandya (he/him), an architect, writer and educator who is Associate Head of College at the College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries at the University of Westminster in London. Samir’s edited book After Belonging: Architecture, Nation, Difference (2023) examines the relationships between architecture, spatial politics and identity.Transcript for conversation here. ____DMA is brought to you by The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and Critical Design Lab, with this miniseries funded by The Graham Foundation.Your hosts are Aimi Hamraie and Jos Boys, with Scar Barclay and Paul DeFazio supporting the series production. Ilana Nevins is our editor, with Scar finalising edits for the DisOrdinary Architecture version.Find out more about this project and related projects at disordinaryarchitecture.co.uk and criticaldesignlab.com.Find out more about Micha’s work here: Website: michafrazercarroll.comInstagram: @micha_frazercarroll