In this video interview, members of the design team—DeafSpace founder Hansel Bauman, Gallaudet University Design Researcher Robert Sirvage, architect Todd Ray of Studio 27 Architecture, and Monarc Construction project manager Ardencia Love-Smalls—discuss the specific materials and design considerations that went into the project. View the transcript here.
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5 Touchpoints
For the deaf and hard-of-hearing, the built environment—primarily constructed by and for hearing individuals—presents a variety of challenges. To accommodate their unique ways-of-being, deaf people have responded to these challenges with a particular way of altering their surroundings, an approach often referred to as "DeafSpace."
In 2005 architect Hansel Bauman, with the ASL Deaf Studies Department at Gallaudet University, established the DeafSpace Project, and the team developed the DeafSpace Guidelines, a catalog of more than 150 architectural design elements that address the five major touchpoints between deaf experiences and the built environment:
1. Sensory reach2. Space and proximity
3. Mobility and proximity
4. Light and color
5. Acoustics and floor vibrations
View the slide show below for a diagramatic presentation of the DeafSpace Concepts. And to find out more about DeafSpace design in action, go to the 2014 Remodeling Design Awards coverage of the residential halls remodel at Gallaudet University.
