MAIA: Disability Justice and architecture

As part of their ongoing work for the ABUELOS project, MAIA asked DisOrdinary Architecture to lead an exploratory workshop using a Disability Justice lens to think through what a space built for disabled joy, beauty & equity could be like.

The ABUELOS project involves renovating some derelict industrial buildings in Ladywood, Birmingham for “a cultural centre with accommodation […] as a site of radical hospitality and art. For this workshop, DisOrdinary Architecture gathered a range of participants to explore three alternative concepts to those so often used by architects - non-visual beauty, crip time and dignity – all terms richly informed by the ideas and work of disability justice activists.  In the workshop, participants worked around shared table cloths, each with one concept in the centre, to map out what it meant to them and what kinds of things needed to happen to make it realisable in a building design project.