Alternative Futures - Questioning Design Standards

Lecture Abstract:

Restrooms exemplify how architecture as a discipline is complicit in perpetuating cultural assumptions about the nature of human identity and embodiment through the protocols of professional practice. Using Stalled! as a case study, the talk will describe how these ideologies are encoded through formulaic spatial typologies, presumed to be shaped by objective functional criteria but that are actually historically relative highly problematic cultural constructions. The subjective values encoded in these typologies are translated into standards that are disseminated through guidelines and building codes. In his talk, Sanders will propose a two-part Inclusive Design methodology that uses cross-disciplinary research and analysis as a critical tool to imagine alternative futures that call into question and ultimately offer alternatives to architectural standards that perpetuate the status quo.