DAY 1 • TUESDAY 15 SEPTEMBER • 15.15 – 15.45
Space for inclusion: Co-designing inclusive and resilient futures
An extract from our short research film 'Space for Inclusion: Co-designing Inclusive and Resilient Futures', exploring how lived experience can reveal aspects of the built environment that drawings, audits and technical guidance alone cannot capture.
Developed through collaboration between Foster + Partners, The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and 21 disabled creatives, the research revisits five completed buildings by Foster + Partners spanning several decades to understand how people perceive, navigate and experience space in different ways.
Through multiple visits to each building, focusing on entrances, toilets and urban rooms, the research brings together diverse, dynamic, cross-disability and intersectional perspectives. It explores not only physical access, but sensory and cognitive experiences of space – revealing where experiences align, where they differ, and where different access needs may create tensions.
Rather than seeking a single solution, the research demonstrates the value of understanding these differences and complexities. It considers how lived experience can provide a richer body of design knowledge, complementing technical guidance and helping architects make more informed decisions about the environments they create.
The film also follows how this learning is being brought into live projects at Foster + Partners through co-design and collaboration, embedding lived experience from the early stages of the design process and considering inclusion as an integral part of design.
The session will conclude with a discussion about the next stages of the project, and the development of a new white paper emerging from the research and subsequent industry conversations.
Suzan Ucmaklioglu, BA Hons, AADip, PGDip, RIBA, ARB. Partner & Inclusive Design Lead, Foster and Partners
Poppy Levison, Architectural Designer, Researcher and Disability Activist
Suzan Ucmaklioglu
Suzan is a registered architect and Inclusive Design Lead at Foster Partners. She works across projects globally, collaborating with design teams to embed inclusive design throughout the design process, from early concept to delivery.
Her experience spans aviation, transport infrastructure, commercial workplace, mixed-use, cultural, civic and healthcare projects, alongside practice-wide research and the development of inclusive design guidance.
Before joining Foster + Partners in 2020, Suzan worked at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) and Grimshaw on a range of major UK and international projects. She contributes to architectural education and industry through teaching, guest lecturing and collaborative research, promoting inclusive design as a fundamental part of architectural practice.
Her work explores the social and political dimensions of inclusive design, placing lived experience at the heart of the design process and recognising the role architecture plays in responding to the diversity of human experience.
Poppy Levison
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project is a disabled-led platform rooted in the experiences and creativity of disabled artists, aiming to shift paradigms around disability, access, and inclusion.
Poppy Levison (she/her) is a Co-director of DisOrdinary and has led on projects such as V&A Design and Disability and Seats at the Table. She is registered blind and has particular research focuses on BlindSpace and disability co-housing.