Who We Are
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project was founded by Zoe Partington and Jos Boys.
Zoe Partington (She/Her) is an artist who works with viscerally powerful audio, visual and tactile representations to explore disabled people’s perceptions and experiences of space. Her practice is informed by her own experiences of sight loss that has taken her and her work on a journey as a tool for change. Zoe also works as a consultant, auditor and creative equality trainer for the cultural sector. Most recent art projects include Decoding Difference (2022), part of Layers of Vision exhibition Bush House London; and Domestic Landscapes (ongoing) where she has worked with diverse disabled women to explore the uses and meanings of their favourite household gadgets.
Throughout all her work Zoe is passionate about inclusion and changing the perspectives and stereotypes which modern society often holds about disabled people.
Eliza Grosvenor (She/Her) is a partially deaf curator, researcher and artist passionate about creating more equitable and sustainable spaces and systems, advocating for fairness and empowering others. Alongside DisOrdinary, Eliza is currently the Head of Programme for an annual architecture festival and has her own artistic practice. Her background lies in the built environment, contemporary art, set design and theatre.
Jos Boys (She/Her) studied architecture and has worked for many years in feminist and community-based design practices, as well as a researcher, educator, journalist and photographer. She is author of Doing Disability Differently: an alternative handbook on architecture, dis/ability and designing for everyday life” (Routledge 2014) and editor of “Disability, Space, Architecture: A Reader (Routledge 2017) which brings together the best writing on built space from disability studies with innovative ideas about inclusive design, so as to create an important new resource for built environment students, educators and design professionals. She is also co-editor (with Anthony Clarke and John Gardner) of Neurodivergence and Architecture (Elsevier 2022).
Jos is currently a Guest Professor at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, an Honorary Associate Professor at the Knowledge Lab UCL, and works as an independent scholar and consultant.
Scarlett Barclay (They/Them) is a neuroqueer architectural assistant, who has previously worked as a freelance artist and printer. They are currently completing a Masters in Architecture at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (UAL), having previously studied at the University of Cambridge for their BA. They have experience leading codesign projects, workshops and coordinating competition entries for cultural institutions.
Participating Disabled Artists, Designers and Architects
Jon Adams
Richard Amm
Chris Ankin
Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq
Sue Austin
Sonia Boue
Caroline Cardus
Joolz Cave Berry
Lynn Cox
Liz Crow
David Dixon
Richard Dougherty
Stephanie Fuller
Rachel Gadsden
Martin Glover
Eliza Grosvenor
Sabine Gruhn
Tony Heaton
Noemi Lakmaier
Poppy Levison
Mandy Legg
Chris Laing
Barbara Lisicki
Andy Kee
Simon McKeown
Raquel Meseguer
Priya Mistry
Melissa Mostyn
Pam Newall
Sarah Pickthall
Tanya Raabe-Webber
Simon Raven
Mandy Redvers-Rowe
Jessica Ryan
Rosie Scott
Helen Stratford
Miles Thomas
Nina Thomas
Damian Toal
Natasha Trotman
Joseph Young
Mark Ware
Jordan Whitewood-Neal
Aaron Williamson
James Zatka-Haas
Supporting Built Environment and Cultural Sector Network
Professor Harry Charrington, Samir Pandya, Julia Dwyer and Julian Williams (University of Westminster School of Architecture and Built Environment), Chi Roberts and Luke Jones (CASS Foundation Programme, London Metropolitan University), Emily Crompton, Stefan White and Helen Ashton (Manchester School of Architecture), Professor Alan Penn, Professor Barbara Penner, Tanya Sengupta and Paolo Zaide, B-Made workshop (Bartlett School of Architecture UCL), Manijeh Verghese and Harriet Jennings (Architectural Association), Daniel Jary and Leo Care (Sheffield School of Architecture), Professor Katie Lloyd Thomas (Newcastle School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape), Judit Puztaszeri (University of Brighton), Masashi Kajita (Danish Academy of Design, Copenhagen), ReFabricate, Thomas Carpentier, Julie Fleck, Samantha Fletcher, Cerri Hedderwick Turner, Greg Morrell, Cassie Herschel- Shorland, Mark Lumley (Architype), Robert Sakula and Cany Ash (Ash Sakula Architects), Geoff Shearcroft (Architects of Change), Emily Rissom (Architecture plb), Ruth Taylor (Sarah Wigglesworth Architects), Matthew Lloyd and Patricia Woodward (Matthew Lloyd Architects), Avanti Architects, HLM Architects, Robert Barnes Architects, Shade Abdul (Shade Abdul Architecture), Danna Walker (Built by Us), Anne Thorne and Fran Bradshaw (Anne Thorne Architects), Steve McAdam and Natalia Alonzo (Fluid Architects), Dominie Sheeley (Willmott Dixon), Tane Kinch (Jacobs), V&A Museum, Design Museum and many more.