The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities and Landscapes Beyond

UCL's Global Disability Innovation Hub and UCL Urban Laboratory are delighted to invite you to this presentation, where David Gissen will outline a few key concepts from his new book, The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities and Landscapes Beyond Access (University of Minnesota Press, 2022).

Disability critiques of architecture usually emphasize the need for modification to improve disability access and usability, but The Architecture of Disability calls for a radical reorientation of this perspective by situating impairment as a foundation for the built environment. With its provocative proposals for the construction, preservation and urbanization of disability, this book fundamentally reconsiders how we conceive of and represent impairment in our world.

David Gissen is an author and designer based in New York City. He is Professor of Architecture and Urban History at Parsons School of Design/The New School and a visiting professor at Columbia GSAPP. In addition to The Architecture of Disability, he is the author of the books Subnature (2009) and Manhattan Atmospheres (2013).

This event is jointly hosted by Global Disability Innovation Hub (which sits within UCLIC in the Deptment of Computer Science) and UCL Urban Laboratory at UCL's new Pool Street Campus, on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London - the home of both organisations. 

Tickets are availible for both in-person and digital attendence. The event will be streamed via Zoom.

Image ALT text: 

1) a portrait of David - smiling to the camera with a grey background. 

2) the front cover of David's book - with title 'The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities and Landscapes Beyond Access' and graphic drawings of steps.