Architecture and Visual Impairment Research

The speed of today's life, the superficiality to which we are captives, the overload of information, the increasingly globalized world, all are factors that hold us down if we just look but never observe.

Based on these concerns I had an idea to fight back the lack of Humanity we are getting far from with an architectural design Pilot Project that brings us back to those human aspects we are losing every day.

Sonar (Architecture and Visual Impairment).

One day came to my hand the amazing book by Jose Saramago (Blindness), and It touched me in a very special way, the idea of how would the lives of ordinary people that enjoy all their senses change if one normal day they sudden lost vision.

For me as an architect a profession that relies heavily on the visual aspects and the sensations that they exercise, I have seen as the over-activity of the visual invasion  and the increasingly indiscriminate advertising affects the enjoyment and delight of the original goal of architecture.

Through this research our working group was able to achieve an interesting compilation of information we want to share with you in order to show the impressions we observe in this analysis of how the Visual Impaired understand the architectural spaces and the world outside despite the lost of vision.

The work aims to motivate freely in every designer the interest to create an architecture that gets back to that human fundaments again and lead them to create spaces with that touch 
where senses most play a key role.

"The Blinds can see what we can not see they see beyond the tangible, to what is apparent, could ironically also be called seeing.

The fact of a person that observes things without physical evidence, believing in the words, good deeds, good values or feelings of others is a way of living life in a full way.

Thats why we developed this Draft Project as a way of looking at things with a deep appreciation and capture the essence of spaces."

Special thanks to the students:

Amanda Simo
Jeffrey Peralta
Jose Matos
Gilberto Rosario
Lilliam Martinez
Nicoles Ballis
Marisol Amparo
Mishelle Jimenez
Teresa Perez

For their contributions and great efforts!.

Juan Federico Solano

 Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Mestra

 Architectural Design Professor 


To download the full document just click the link below.

-->

Sonar Draft Full Download