Design diary

  As discussed, within the planning system there are documents produced by local authorities. This includes the London Borough Council which has produced a supplementary planning document for Inclusive Landscape Design. The purpose of this document is to “reflect the London Plan and… ‘Accessible London’ (document)”. The framework within this document, unlike the other frameworks, that have been analyzed, this guide focuses on the “sequential journey” of a user. The Inclusive Landscape Design supplementary planning document explicitly mentions “visually impaired” people and identifies key and quantitative measures by which as designers we can tell if our site is accessible for them. This quantitative data includes pedestrian routes needing to have rest points every 150m and “suitably designed crossing points” and guidance on how to make steps, handrails and “safe, convenient and easy access for… visually impaired people”. 

  Tredegar House is owned by the National Trust has a sensory trail which goes across it’s lands and highlights the different senses to the users. This trail is perfect for people with visual impairments as it focuses on more senses rather than just sight, which is often the focus of gardens especially traditional ones. Throughout the site there are braille signs, however these could be difficult to find for visually impaired people, in order to combat this the National Trust has created  a digital map of the land . To aid with creating sensory trails the sensory trust has created a guide to aid designers. The guide that a sensory trail are primarily aimed at people with disabilities, however they don’t have to be exclusively used by disabled people. Sensory trails can be used to “give people the opportunity to listen, touch, smell and look more closely” than they may otherwise.

 I've been reading "Design for Belonging", this has been helping me when looking at inclusive design and the need for inclusive design for my dissertation. Inclusive Design is so important as a well-designed and inclusive space creates a sense of community, this is so important as communities contribute to a friendly, safe, and welcoming atmosphere  this will then impact people's mental health as an increased community and create a sense of purpose for people.

 Recently I visited Dortmund. Within this city, there were a lot of small park like areas, especially around the train stations. One of the ones I really liked was the area outside of the metro where there was a small water feature. The elements I enjoyed is the red bricks and the more sensory experience from the sound and feel of the water. The sensory experiences of a site is something I've been looking into a lot due to my dissertation which surrounds visually impaired people therefore I've been thinking a lot about how someone with additional needs would use a site.

As part of my dissertation writing, I have created some goals that I want to achieve in writing it. Goals- -To show the current barriers that are encountered by visually impaired people” -To analyze the current frameworks and guidelines -To propose some solutions to the problems currently being faced through the lens of the current frameworks  Currently the question I am looking to answer for my dissertation is " How can we design public open spaces to allow for visually impaired people to make those space feel more inclusive?". I will be trying to write bits of my dissertation here and trying to document my research.

  Initial ideas- Looking at the history of Gloucester there was a story that cropped up a lot of "the tailor of Gloucester". This is a story of kindness, this is something that I think can really apply to today, especially in this site which will center around climate change and people's actions having an impact.