Universal Design: Guidelines for Commercial Buildungs

"The importance and the benefits of universal design are widely recognised. Universal design increases the mobility and communication of people, which helps to integrate people of different abilities into the mainstream daily life. It enables everyone to enjoy the built environment and live a quality life. This “all inclusive” society that addresses the individual’s special needs will lead to innovative and creative response in the design of built environment."

"These guidelines deal with the various provisions of universal design with focus on commercial buildings. They are organised based on functional areas inside and outside of buildings. Within each functional area, several essential components will be deliberated. The main functional areas consist of Carpark, Entrance, Horizontal Circulation, Vertical Circulation, Mechanical Circulation, Facilities, Retail and Food & Beverage. Within each functional area, the main components are elaborated."

::: DOWNLOAD Building and Construction Authority (2006) Universal Design. Guidelines (Commercial Buildings), 103 pages

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Photograph via IF Group

Walking Contest

An individual's walking speed is determined by several factors ranging from personal ones, such as age, gender, health, mood etc., to cultural ones, such as country or size of the city. In empirical studies, walking speed is often regarded as one indicator of the speed of life. Early studies from the 1970s revealed a link between the average walking speed and the number of inhabitants; i.e., the more inhabitants a city has, the higher their average walking speed. Levine developed the concept of "Type-A-Cities" which are characterised by large size, high speed, mild climate, high gross domestic product, specific cultural values ... and higher rates of coronary heart disease (Morgenroth, 2008).

Richard Wiseman's study of 32 cities ranks Singapore first place (10.55 seconds for 60 feet/about 20 metres), followed by Copenhagen (10.82s), Madrid (10.89s), Guangzhou (10.94s), Dublin (11.03s), Curitiba (11.13s), Berlin (11.16s), New York (12s), Utrecht (12.04s) and Vienna (12.06s). The Swiss city of Bern is on place 30 (17.37s), followed by Maname in Bahrain (17.69s) and Blantyre in Malawi (31.60s) (Socio). Bern has the image of being comparably more "slow-paced" than other Swiss cities. A comparison between Zürich and Bern shows that on average people in Zürich walk 5.3 metres more per minute than those in Bern (via). Morgenroth's study of 20 German cities carried out in 2003 ranks Hannover (5.38 km/h) first place and Trier (4.97 km/h) last. One interpretation of the results the authors offer - on the basis of Max Weber's (controversially discussed) concept of the "Protestant Work Ethic" and its closer link to capitalism - is that cities with a higher percentage of Protestant inhabitants have a higher walking speed than "Catholic cities" (CogSci).

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Morgenroth, O. (2008) Zeit und Handeln: Psychologie der Zeitbewältigung. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer

The posting "Walking Contest" first appeared on Diversity is Beautiful

Ampeln mit Chip in Singapur

Dass die Grünphase vieler Ampeln auf das Tempo von SprintläuferInnen ausgerichtet ist, dürfte ein allgemein bekanntes Problem sein. Unrealistisch kurze Grünphasen haben zur Folge, dass der sogenannte "Durchschnittsfußgänger" es mit viel Eile und ein wenig Irritation noch schaffen kann, die Straße bei grün zu überqueren (selbst das gilt nicht für alle Ampeln, schalten einige auf rot wenn man gerade mitten auf der Straße ist) während ältere Damen und Herren oft trotz großer Beeilung und einer noch größeren Portion Irritation keine Chance haben. Nicht in Singapur.
Die staatliche Land Transport Authority hat 2011 in Singapur das System "Green Man +" eingeführt: Mehrere hundert Fußgängerampeln wurden umgerüstet und funktionieren mit einem Chip. Wer über 60 Jahre alt ist oder eine körperliche Behinderung hat bekommt einen Chip, mit dem er die Grünphase um bis zu 13 Sekunden verlängern kann, indem er den Chip an die dafür vorgesehene Vorrichtung an der Ampel hält (Land Transport Authority).

::: Kurzer Clip (ca. 2 Minuten): YouTube

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Foto via Mother Tongue Writers