Buro Happold Aids University Research Project
The Access division of multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy Buro Happold is to provide guidance to a team of researchers from Salford University. The team were recently awarded a £300.000 project funded by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EQUAL) to develop a 'best practice' approach for designing accessible environments.
The Salford University Research Focus on Accessible Environments (SURFACE) team, will be spending the next thirty months developing a picture for designing accessible environments and the strategies adopted in the Millennium Experience, Greenwich. They will study the model used to assimilate and operationallise their knowledge base and to evaluate best practice, tracing the development of access guidance from briefing notes through to the physical implementation.
Su Peace, Access consultant at Buro Happold explains. “The Millennium Experience is an exceptional example of inclusive design especially in such a large scale setting. We will be providing the team with background information and contact with the Millennium Experience Advisory Group to enable them to use exhibits at the Dome as models to help them carry out their academic research and improve our design ability.”
The current programme for SURFACE is due for completion in May 2002. The team are currently in Stage 1 – familiarisation - of a four stage process which involves development research, research and documenting. SURFACE intends to focus on two zones, the Home Planet and Play Zone. “To enable SURFACE to determine the most appropriate areas of research, it has been essential for us to meet on a number of occasions. The meetings were held to facilitate their understanding of the design philosophy and to explain the processes undertaken within the scheme,” comments Peace.
Marcus Ormerod, team director at SURFACE concludes: “The opportunity to develop our understanding of accessible design through academic research is one not to be missed. We are delighted to be working with Buro Happold on such an exciting project.”
