[Visitaccess] help with the pattern book on visitable housing

[Eleanor Smith]

Ed, you're off to a great start.
 
without time during the next several days  to study your attachments in
detail, my early input wd be:
 
1) suggest re content: in intro, emphasize specifically how universal
basic  access to houses  fits with  NU aims/charter/ideals 
 
2) re styles: a) include  examples of good at-grade (non-elevated)
traditional-style  town houses
                  b) give much emphasis to residences above stores,
because that is a style showing up all over the country and has major
implications for visitability/aging in place/ family remaining in home
after  a family member's becoming mobility impaired thru illness or
accident, whether child or adult.  I have some ideas about solutions,
and no doubt others on the list also have.
 
a question:  many NUists emphasize TND, but some like modernist styles.
Wd we want to include modernist in the pattern boo?
 
Eleanor
 

-----Original Message-----
From: visitaccess-bounces at cnunext.org
[mailto:visitaccess-bounces at cnunext.org] On Behalf Of Steinfeld, Edward
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 1:09 PM
To: VisitAccess at cnunext.org
Subject: [Visitaccess] help with the pattern book on visitable housing



We have developed a draft table of contents and tentative scope for the
Pattern Book that I described in a previous post. 

 

We are modeling this book on the pattern book for Habitat for Humanity
being developed by the Institute for Classical Architecture, UDA and
others. Eric Osth from UDA will be meeting with me in early July to
discuss how we can share information and examples. 

 

Thus summer, I hired three students to work on the layout for the book,
the introductory sections and some initial designs.  We will do all the
3D illustrations in Sketchup and post them on the web for comment. 

 

By the end of the summer, we hope to have the introductory sections
drafted, the table of contents and scope finalized, about 4-5 examples
of the house designs done and all the examples and styles identified.
Then, my Fall graduate design studio will work on the rest of the
examples and put selected houses into context using real world sites.
We hope to have a complete draft done by the end of the Fall semester.

 

Since there are endless variations of house forms, we need to narrow the
scope to a manageable number. So, we are asking for your help. Please
review the attached documents. We would like your input on the styles we
should use for the various types of buildings - see the instructions in
the scope document. We would like your responses at the end of next
week. Please also send along any photos or plans of houses that we can
redesign or use in the book. They should be good designs but they don't
have to be accessible because we will redesign and redraft them for the
purposes of the book.

 

I am going to have my students fan out during a week in October to do
field trips to New Urbanist projects. Since it doesn't cost that much
more to visit LA than Chicago, they can go anywhere in the country.
Please suggest communities that you think they should visit and, if you
have information on contacts with the developer, planners or designers,
please send them along also. 

 

Finally, if you are interested in volunteering to meet with a student
team and/or help them organize their visit to a project in your
neighborhood, please indicate that as well. 

 

If you have any additional suggestions or advice of any sort, please let
me know or post it to the list. 

 

Thanks very much for your help. 

 

Edward Steinfeld, Arch.D., AIA

Professor of Architecture and Director

Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access School of
Architecture and Planning

University at Buffalo, State University of New York

 

Tel. 716 829 3485 (x327)

Fax. 716 829 3861

email address:arced at buffalo.edu

IDEA Center website: www.ap.buffalo.edu/idea 

 

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