Beyond Normal and Pathological. Translating Experience Schindler Workshop, ETH Zurich 08./09.11.2006

This workshop on exhibition design was aimed at exploring architecture’s capacity to communicate with all senses. The working thesis was that space becomes an activator translating and interpreting works of art in such a way that the phenomena and experiences aligned with the art pieces could be shared and discussed by all. Learning from the spatial experiences of our disabled / differently abled experts, the team wanted to challenge architecture beyond the normative established by the limited “normal ” perception. Taking into consideration the huge number of buildings and cultural institutions that are still lacking an alignment to what the emerging quest for accessibility already encompasses. Not only is architecture not accessible for all. It is the discourse of architecture that has been and still is exclusive. From the very start of architectural theory, architecture was defined as less concerned with housing the human body, but about transfiguring and making visible the contemporary concepts of the human body. Thus, the production of architecture and architectural theory was closely bound to those concepts stemming from philosophy, politics and medical science. The Italian Renaissance is a good example of how closely the concept of an ideal human body was linked to the concept of an ideal architectural body. Throug