- Words and images by Julie-Anne Czyz
![Communal space from interior [IS THIS NOT JUST: COMMUNAL INTERIOR SPACE?]](https://citizen-mag.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/13-Communal-Space-scaled.jpg)
Goal & objective
Accessible Places is a mixed-use residential project proposing a prototype for a universally accessible architecture that intends to provide inclusivity for less commonly represented users.
Strategy
This is achieved through the design of flexible spaces and sculpting the floor plan as a social catalyst to build on the idea of a village in a building. These happen within the project on different scales:
• Micro: furniture modules have been designed around users with mobility issues for ease of use
• Mezzo: the circulation spaces are designed as a social catalyst to encourage people to encounter one another and create communities within their living and shared amenity spaces
• Macro: the project is a prototype that can be put on different sites
Impact
Due to the prototype framework of the architecture, the project can be multiplied on various sites, which is crucial considering today’s statistic that currently 93 per cent of 8.5 million rental properties in the UK are classed as inaccessible, despite 14.1 million people in the UK needing accessible accommodation. Accessible Places aims to create a completely accessible building that doesn’t consider Part M as an afterthought, but rather as at the forefront of the design – shifting the way architects design space.
Site location
Lea Bridge Road, London Borough of Waltham Forest
Project size
452,084.24 sqft / 42,000 sqm
Client
Lea Bridge and Waltham Forest Council
