What we offer
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project is a not-for-profit platform that starts from the experiences, expertise and creativity of disabled artists. Led by diverse disabled artists, designers and architects, DisOrdinary Architecture aims to shift paradigms about disability, access and inclusion across built environment and cultural sectors. We do this through three key areas: 1. Network, 2. Channel and 3. Archive. You can find out about each area below.
Channel
DisOrdinary Architecture starts from the space of contemporary disability arts to test out ideas, models and frameworks that reimagine how doing disability differently can create more socially just spaces, whether in galleries and museums or across our built surroundings. We do this by:
Building long-term relationships with activist, cultural and built environment organisations towards together improving inclusive practices;
Offering experiential learning workshops, participatory engagements, alternative design development methods and co-designed built interventions to provoke new ways of thinking and doing disability across art, design and culture,
Collaborating on in-depth research and other initiatives that support social, spatial and material justice.
Network
DisOrdinary Architecture aims to be a nurturing network, bringing together people and projects (old and new), providing mutual support and amplifying the knowledge, stories, lived experience and creativity of diverse disabled people. By understanding disability as a creative generator for art, design and architecture, and as a challenge to current norms and practices, we go beyond conventional access and inclusion. Instead, we ask arts, cultural and built environment organisations not to miss out, but to learn with us about how this vital paradigm shift can richly affect what they do. We do this by:
Initiating and collaborating on creative disability-led events;
Generating projects that enable disabled artists, designers and architects to have their voices heard, and their creativity to make an impact;
Bringing together intergenerational and intersectional platforms and individuals interested in spatial justice for community and debate,
Modelling best practice in making truly accessible events and spaces.
Archive
To demonstrate the impact of DisOrdinary Architecture, after over 15 years of operation, and bring its deep knowledge and work into wider awareness, we are creating a ‘living’ archive, capturing our learning and evolving over time in response to current and previous projects and outputs. We do this by:
Recording and reflecting on past and current projects;
Building an ongoing store of resources to share lessons learnt;
Developing useful tools for cultural and built environment sector organisations and individuals to rethink disability, access and inclusion,
Communicating our approach through social media, podcasts, exhibitions and publications.
What we don’t do
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project is not a conventional access consultancy. We do not do conventional access audits or provide ‘accessible solutions’. We only work with organisations that are interested in moving beyond conventional understandings of access and inclusion, and towards disability justice – not just in their projects but also in their practices.
We no longer do ‘one-off’ Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions, unless these are part of a larger involvement with organisations, as we are committed to using our limited time and energy as a non-profit informal platform to make real impact.
Terms of Engagement
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project works to inclusive and equitable principles. We will collaborate on agreed ‘terms of engagement’ in advance for each project and/or person involved. This includes not undertaking any unpaid work. Disabled people are often asked to volunteer their knowledge for free; a key rule for DisOrdinary Architecture is always to make sure that disabled artists, designers and architects from our network are funded for their work, including access costs.
We offer a sliding fee scale, with lower costs for community and activist groups, compared to professional and commercial organisations. Please get in touch to find out more.