Lucas Wang – LARC 502 | Sensing Landscape

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s e n s i n g

w i t h o u t

s i g h t

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Impaired vision is a highly impactful imposition to live with. Not only is the act of seeing so integral in culture and society to the point where it is directly equated with perception and comprehension itself, but the impairment or loss of this sense is something most of us will have to deal with eventually. Given how poignant and (mostly) inevitable this issue is, it is surprising that more spaces are not designed taking into consideration those who are vision-impaired. Many outdoor spaces especially, are so difficult to navigate for those without sight, that they are entirely reliant on someone else to guide them around. This becomes especially pressing when vision impairment is compounded by the loss of other faculties, as is the case in the elderly who experience dementia exacerbated by the inability to visually orient themselves.

“I was with my cousin having lunch and he went off to go back home and I was in the garden and I just could not place myself. And I said to (sic), in a loud voice, ‘I hope somebody will come and fetch me for tea this afternoon, I don’t think I know where I am’. […]”

(Dorothy, excerpt from Lawrence et al. 2009)

The elderly are not the only affected demographics, as children and working-age adults are also impacted by the difficulties associated with being unable to see or see well in a sighted world.

Thus, the primary values foregrounded in this park redesign are as follows

Agency
Independence
Meaningful engagement with designed spaces

part 1A

site documentation

Map showing location of the site relative to the rest of Vancouver (Modified from Google Earth image)

Sketched notes of the site, marking down some of the sensory experiences

Quick initial sketch section exploring the experienced perceptions of slope, before retrieving topographical data

Quick and rough calculations on the heights of some significant trees at the site

Photos taken at the site of some features of the park. Photos include documentation of trees, their bark, and the moss thereon. Also included are the houses at the sides, the little ankle-twisting traps left by puppy-guerrillas, the views of English Bay and North Vancouver, and finally the memorial plaques on benches.

Photos taken upon revisiting the site at ~01:30 at low tide, showing the expanse of sand revealed by the absent water, the view of the site from sea level below, and the inhabitants of the surrounding area, including echinoderms, crustaceans, and an apparently insomniac heron, who nearly gave me a heart attack.

Cube diagram of a portion of the park, organising the species, experiences, and phenomena

First simple plan depicting the site as it is, drawn at 1:100

parts 1B-1C

concept and development

Early sketched concepts of features that could cater to a visually impaired experience of “view”, most of the memorial plaques talked about the view, and the site itself seemed built to facilitate enjoying it, so the question was naturally raised, “how does one translate ‘the view’ for those who can’t view?”

Outline notes for ideas of different sensory elements catering to those with limited vision, or none at all

Axes of the site, along with means of non-visually orienting oneself along those axes, roughly visualised to guide the design process

First main concept that makes use of a non-Aristotelian sense (i.e. not sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste) to help orient visitors. This idea was intended to gently slope northwards, and the sensation of elevation change would help visitors orient themselves along the park’s y-axis

Iteration on the concept, extending the mound forms to meet the edge of the path

Brainstorming interactive elements for the visually impaired, such as bright paths with dark borders, windchimes, wooden and metal noisemakers, wind through bamboo, and ornate seating to tactilely experience

Bright metal bells in the shape of cartoon fly agaric for whimsicality, the bright reflective metal would help those visually impaired to discover the bells, and the temperature and material would encourage striking them to hear a noise

Design experiment laying out a totally new path and completely changing the concept, retaining nothing from the original site

Rough conceptual sketch of what a path down to sea level might look like

Laying out more trace paper over the rejected concept, and experimenting on iterations on the ramp idea, using a length of string, which was measured out to be a 1:100 scaled length of the distance a slope requires to stay gentle

Notes on using resting points with sensory plantings, and sound and ground texture qualities to inform visually impaired visitors of the transition to more hazardous terrain

Sketched sections of the switchbacks, with the wind chime to guide people back to shore

Sketched perspective of the switchback concept

Ultimately the idea had to be abandoned as the number of switchbacks required was always simply unfeasible

Concept of a plan involving a terraced park, waterfalls, and obscuring foliage, with steel and wooden wind chimes for direction

It was only upon starting a 1:200 model that it became apparent that this idea would not work

Literally and figuratively going back to the drawing board and making a 1:100 topographical model of the site, to reexamine and reframe the existing conditions

Experimenting with freely creating topographic forms

Concept sketch of what an opening in a tall dense hedge planting would appear like to someone only capable of perceiving light and dark

Someone with blurry vision, only able to differentiate blocks of contrasting colour, might still be able to vividly experience bright flowers such as particularly floriferous cultivars of rhododendrons

The veritable conspiracy board which is taped up above my desk for visibility, thus the project is literally hanging over my head

Very first initial concept sketch of the “rooms” idea

Deciding to go digital for the final round of model-making: quickly modelling the benches in real size and relation to get a feel for their spacing and form

3D rendered draft of the “rooms” concept, with benches and planters, and with distinct spaces created by tall dividing plantings

Openings and obscurings between different “rooms”

Wider angle showing the Summer and Autumn Rooms, with the Winter Room obscured

final product

Planting palate for the proposed additions

Sketch diagramming how the sound mirror non-visually captures the “view” of the bay

The giant sound mirrors of RAF Denge served as inspiration for the concept of using sound to translate a view (https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/166)

Perspective which attempts to capture a non-visual experience of the Autumn Room

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r e f e r e n c e s

a n d

c r e d i t s

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Works referenced

Foster, S., Duvall, C., & Powell, J. (1992). Adaptive Gardening Techniques for the Visually Impaired. Portland: Oregon State University Extension Service.

Hussein, H. (2010). Using the sensory garden as a tool to enhance the educational development and social interaction of children with special needs. Support for Learning, 25-31.

Hussein, H. (2012). Experiencing and Engaging Attributes in a Sensory Garden as Part of a Multi-Sensory Environment. Journal of Special Needs Education, 38-50.

Krzeptowska-Moszkowicz, I., Moszkowicz, Ł., & Porada, K. (2021). Evolution of the Concept of Sensory Gardens in the Generally Accessible Space of a Large City: Analysis of Multiple Cases from Kraków (Poland) Using the Therapeutic Space Attribute Rating Method. Sustainability.

Lawrence, V., Murray, J., ffytche, D., & Banerjee, S. (2009). “Out of sight, out of mind”: a qualitative study of visual impairment and dementia from three perspectives. International Psychogeriatrics, 511-518.

Nakamura, K., Otomo, A., Maeda, A., Kikuchi, S., Motohashi, Y., Tanaka, M., . . . Yamamoto, M. (1999). Evaluation of complex activities in daily living of elderly Japanese with visual impairment. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 123-129.

Percival, J., Hanson, J., & Osipovic, D. (2006). A positive outlook? The housing needs and aspirations of working age people with visual impairments. Disability and Society, 661-675.

Siu, K. M. (2013). Accessible park environments and facilities for the visually impaired. Facilities, 590-609.

Zajadacz, A., & Lubarska, A. (2019). Sensory gardens in the context of promoting well- being of people with visual impairments in the outdoor sites. International Journal of Spa and Wellness, 3-17.

Zajadacz, A., & Lubarska, A. (2020). Sensory gardens as places for outdoor recreation adapted to the needs of people with visual impairments. Studia Periegetica, 25-43.