Fran Wen

Embedding inventive design for inclusion has always been a key focus for Manalo and White Project architect Takuya Oura. However to take take ideas and action around inclusion further, Oura invited The DisOrdinary Architecture Project to begin working with Manalo and White on ‘Fran Wen’ - a project for the Nyth Youth Theatre near Bangor, Wales in 2020.

The initial Manalo and White proposal for Fran Wen – that won the competitive tender - was explained through audio-description rather than conventional orthographic drawings. As the architects write in their submission: “While [audio-description] is primarily prepared for people with viewing difficulties, it also invites opportunity for a fully sighted person to see things differently and enhance their viewing experience. […]”. They also note that the process allowed them “to see and think differently. Numerous design details emerged from the process of writing the script with [the audio-describer] such as reverberation time, tactility of stonework, smell of wood, velocity of airflow […]. Our ambition for Nyth is to offer valid choices to all users with a joy and clarity in finding their way around, assured by sense of security and filled with excitement of encounters.” 

Since 2020, The DisOrdinary Architecture Project has been involved in the selection of disabled artists/designers to make work as part of the scheme development, and led an online workshop for the buildings intended occupiers, to explore creative ways of integrating inclusive design throughout, led by Zoe Partington, Raquel Meseguer Zafe and Jos Boys and through a written submission by Mandy Redvers-Rowe.