Final Project

Inspiration:

When brainstorming the way people move in a public location, we often forget about those who have physical impairments. Last semester, Sarika had a class in Clare Small Arts and Science. Her class was on the third floor of that building. However, one of the students could not participate in the class session due to their limitations. There were only stairs that went to the third floor and he was in a wheelchair. Due to this dilemma of the building design, the class moved to a more handicap accessible building.

Proposal & Prototypes:

We started by going to Clare Arts and Science. We walked around the building to find where there were handicapped accessible entrances. When we got there we it took us approximately five minutes to find a ramp that was shoved in the corner. We even went to the back of the building to find nothing. After inspecting the building, we found that the third floor did not have an elevator. There was only one exit for those who are handicapped, but we found a lot of space to add more elevators and ramps inside and outside of the building making it simple for the individual who has a class in Clare.

As you can see in this image, there is no signage as to where the ramp could and it could get confusing for an individual.

After taking pictures of the building, we drew out each level of the building to figure out where everything could be added and see what the floor plan was.

Then we digitized the the floor pans, where blue was what we plan to add and green was used to illustrate what was already there.

After criticism in class, we noticed how we need to add an elevator on each side of the building so that that there could be two exits and entrances for those who are in a wheelchair and or need any assistance. We decided we will break down the classrooms on the left side and make them into a space for an elevator that will go from the first to the third floor.

Final Product:

For our final product, we decided to make an actual model of Clare Arts and Sciences with a use of multiple materials. This model will consist of three floors, which can either be stacked on each other to get the building like look or separated to show the changes we have made. We used red foam to represent any changes we will add. We used blue foam for the handicap accessible objects that are included in the building already. We also added signs to make the ramps more clear as to which direction an individual so go. Overall, it was interesting to see how some buildings in this world are not handicap accessible due to their historical purposes. However, we hope that our prototype can be used so that maybe one day Clare will become accessible.