“Disability is such an essential part of life that we all go through. So we are living longer, we’re living with more disabilities. It’s a more common experience. Just given the nature of the human fragility, it’s just an inevitable and a natural part of life. It is almost life reaffirming because of that. And culturally we tend to think of it as something out of the ordinary. Something different, and something that is not right. It needs to be just heroically normal and a natural, inevitable part of life and society.” 

Chris Downey

Architecture Beyond Sight (Andersen, 2019) follows Zoe Legg and Clarke Reynolds partaking on a study week for blind and visually impaired people at The Bartlett UCL, coordinated by The DisOrdinary Architecture Project. Investigating the two participant’s process of making, the film explores the non-visual aspects of architecture shot on 16mm film with sound recorded separately. By highlighting different ways that bringing visually impaired people into architecture and design could benefit the profession, the project is based on the assertion that to have a vision does not require sight. 

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Made by Anna Ulrikke Andersen © 2019, 16mm, 17:17.

Featuring: Jos Boys, Chris Downey, Rachel Gadsden, James Green, Zoe Legg, Duncan Meerding, Mandy Redvers-Rowe, Clarke Reynolds, Dianne Theakstone and Rachel Thompson.

Transcript by Louise Fryer available upon request.

Produced by the DisOrdinary Architecture Project on behalf of The Bartlett UCL. UK.

Screenings: Arts Activated, Sydney, Australia, 22-23 August 2019. 

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