Disabled [adjective]
Syn. Handicapped, infirm, paralyzed, weakened, incapacitated, wounded, confined, disarmed, hamstrung, hurt, lame, maimed, sidelined, stalled, wrecked, broken-down, decrepit, helpless, incapable, laid-up, out-of-action, out-of-commission, powerless.
-Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus
Hyalite Center//
Accessing Adversity
Decrepit, helpless, wrecked. Being tagged disabled carries weight. It sounds hopeless, like giving up. We say they’ll never walk; Their lives will never be as good; They’re not normal. We see this adversity as an obstacle that stops us in our tracks, we must slow down; but is that the only way? What if we could see opportunity in adversity? Instead of giving into the handicap, can we accept it and argue the idea of disabled?
Janine Shepherd was an Olympic bound skier, age 24. One day on a training bike ride, a speeding truck hit her. Doctors told her, “the operation was a success … but the damage is permanent. They’re central nervous system nerves. There is no cure. You’re what we call a partial paraplegic and you will have all the injuries that go along with that. You’ll have no feeling from the waist down. At most, you might get 10 to 20% return.” Skiing was her life. The Olympics were her dream, but it was all lost in a moment.
Physically, her body was crushed, but mentally her life was destroyed.
Eventually, we all face some sort of adverse event. It’s natural. And for us to grow individually and as a society, we must shift from fighting it to accepting it.
Locale // Hyalite Reservoir, Bozeman, Montana, USA
Bozeman draws extreme people, and the Hyalite region just south provides everything. Climbing, skiing, biking, running, hiking, fishing, swimming, etc. The region is highly used year-round, but it is limited to a user’s ability. The idea of ‘universal-access’ cannot be applied here without destroying the appeal of the place, unless we switch from developing the environment, to developing the user.
Result // Accessibility Development Center
Within a year of the diagnosis, Janine Shepherd earned her pilots license. Then Commercial pilots license. Then Instructor’s license. Then became the first female director of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. She defied the prognosis. When her Olympic dream shattered, her mind opened to opportunity. Her life wasn’t over. She became a leader, and did it on her own. But what someone can’t do it on their own?
This two-part center is tool for accessing an individual’s latent potential alongside expanding access to our environment. It consists of a slender central tower whose 30’ x 45’ footprint and 1200’ height appears as simply a locator, but provides three stages of recovery: [1] Initial users who are just beginning rehabilitation, [2] Users who are able but under monitored conditions, [3] Users who can use the greater area of Hyalite as a rehabilitation facility.
The Hyalite region would be transformed into a part of the facility by monitor towers. Small scale recording devices that could be mounted to 6”x6” poles, transportable by a team to specific locations throughout the region, i.e. adjacent to major climbing features, along trails, along fishing spots. In conjunction with wearable technology, these monitor towers record user information [i.e. forces on a recovering knee] in natural conditions, and relay it to the central tower where the user and physician can analyze and develop technology or techniques to benefit the user’s specific needs.
Pushing the limits of human accessibility, pushing the limits of architectural accessibility, and expanding society’s understanding of ability.
