Tag: ramp | ArchDaily

Rethinking the Flat Datum: Designing Space with Incline and Intent

Jonathan Yeung — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Historically, architecture and the built environment have insisted on creating flat, hard surfaces. In earlier eras, walking without paved ground meant mud-caked shoes, uneven footing, tripping hazards, standing water after rain, and high maintenance. Hence, as we shaped cities, we prioritized a smooth, continuous, solid horizontal datum. The benefits are real: easier walking, simpler cleaning, and straightforward programming—furniture, equipment, and partitions all prefer a level base. This universal preference for building on flat ground remains the norm and, for many practical reasons, will likely continue to be.

How Do Railings Elevate Landscape Design?

Enrique Tovar — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 01:30:00 +0000

Regardless of the region, parks and public spaces offer a refreshing escape from bustling urban environments, providing a momentary pause from the fast pace of life. Designed for collective benefit, they serve as dynamic ecosystems where recreation and relaxation seamlessly integrate into the visitor experience. But what is the challenge in designing these spaces? Being perceptive enough to find the balance that meets diverse demands while ensuring accessibility, comfort, and safety. As Austrian-American architect Richard Neutra once said, "If you have to design for people, you have to observe them, understand them, and sympathize with them."

Overcoming Barriers: 4 Residential Projects with Accessibility Strategies in Latin America

Camilla Ghisleni — Sat, 06 Jul 2024 07:30:00 +0000

According to the United Nations (UN), over 1 billion people worldwide live with disabilities, whether physical or intellectual, with 80% residing in Global South countries. Despite advancements in their rights, they still encounter significant barriers and remain among the most marginalized in accessing essential services like healthcare, education, and employment. In this context, architecture is crucial for ensuring safety and spatial independence, enabling their full and effective participation in society.

Handrails and Accessibility 101: Ensuring Safe Usage in Architectural Projects

Enrique Tovar — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 06:45:00 +0000

Architectural design is a discipline that spans a wide range of scales, from macro scales involving the design of master plans or large urban complexes to micro scales, where it focuses on specific elements such as fixtures and fittings. Regardless of scale, careful attention to the design of each component of the built environment plays a critical role in how people experience architecture.

Accessibility: 10 Ramps in Public and Domestic Spaces

Adele Belitardo — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0000

The ramp is one of the architectural elements that, besides facilitating movement between different heights and floors, provide greater accessibility to spaces. In Brazil, a series of decrees and regulations seek to ensure citizenship rights and promote equality and social inclusion of people with disabilities, which permeates issues related to their mobility and freedom to come and go. Architecture plays a key role in this inclusion, by devising strategies to ensure that these people can transit, participate and interact in any environment, whether public or private.

"Our Cities are not Designed for the Disabled" According to CityLab

Dima Stouhi — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 06:30:00 +0000

Although disability laws have been put in place decades ago, architects are still struggling with disability requirements. A recent article by CityLab explored how the rise of speed and efficiency-driven cities have overlooked accessibility, neglecting the needs of people who are physically unable to live or keep up with these dense neighborhoods. And while the "15-Minute City", one that allows people to walk or bike to most essential services within 15 minutes of their home, may seem as the future of built environments, it does not cater to disabled individuals or their movements.

10 Innovative Ramp Solutions in Plans and Sections

Victor Delaqua — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Ramps have become synonymous with accessibility because they are often designed to enable access for people with impaired mobility, however, in many cases, they also end up becoming the guiding concept for various projects, by introducing a different rhythm to the building. Here, ten different ramps were selected to illustrate the ways in which they address circulations in response to different contexts.

How to Design and Calculate a Ramp?

Fabian Dejtiar — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 08:00:00 +0000

We already know that the ramp, aside from its different design possibilities, allows—without forgetting the notion of promenade architecturale—its users to overcome physical barriers in the urban and architectural context.

Community, History and Art Collide in Illuminating Michigan Pavilion

Niall Patrick Walsh — Fri, 26 May 2017 08:00:00 +0000

Cairo-based architect Mohamed Elgendy has won an international competition for the design of a new community pavilion in Roseville, Michigan. The Pavilion at Utica Junction competition, organized by the Roseville DDA, sought to attract proposals for a public pavilion on the site of an old tavern, creating a gathering space for residents and visitors to stage events, socialize, and play. The vision behind Elgendy’s winning scheme was for a dialogue between three elements – a plaza, a ramp, and an indoor pavilion.