Universal Design and…
Type: Podcast
Year: 2025
Location: Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen
DisOrdinary Architecture Contributors: Jos Boys, Poppy Levison and Helen Stratford
The Royal Danish Academy and related contributors: Marcus Aminaka Wilmont, Roberta Cassi, Peter Gråbøl Holm, Hemer, Masashi Kajita, Adam Linden Nielsen, Olga Popovic Larsen, Camilla Ryhl and Else Skjold
Funding: Bevica Foundation
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project has had a long-term relationship with The Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, with artists running workshops there over many years. In addition, Jos Boys, DisOrdinary’s co-director, had a three-year guest professorship which ended in July 2025. As part of this role, Jos hosted three podcasts to capture and discuss some of the collaborative projects - using this as a jumping off point for exploring wider possibilities for doing disability differently within design education.
The series is called Universal Design and.. because it explores how we can expand and redefine the concept of universal design, first developed in the 1980s by disabled architect Ronald Mace. Since then, many disabled scholars and activists have offered critiques of Universal Design as well as alternative ways of including non-normative bodies and minds within design. Yet these important ongoing debates about disability as a concept and disabled people as a constituency are still not much known about in architecture and design worlds. Each episode, then, considers how to go beyond simplistic understandings of access, particularly for design students, educators and practitioners.
Episode 1: Universal Design and… rethinking disability
The first episode explores the problem of how stereotypes of disability (and ability) limit ways of designing for diverse bodies and minds. It considers concepts such as fitting-misfitting and starting for difference as methods for valuing the richness of human bio and neuro-diversity; and offers examples of how our different ways of being in the world can be creative design generators, rather than a problem for designers.
Episode 2: Universal Design and… making better buildings and places
The second episode discusses how we can map existing barriers to universal design in rich and creative ways, connecting to current projects on the Royal Danish Academy, to better inform a more accessible future for disabled people.
Episode 3: Universal design and… disabled creativity
The last episode explores what can be learnt from diverse disabled people’s expertise and creativity in making more inclusive products, buildings and environments. Most importantly this is about enabling disabled people to become designers in their own right, as well as being involved in design and educational processes.