Invisible Space

Henrik Matheson

research

universal design

surfaces

laws

rules

guidelines

equality

examples

society

accessibility

everyone

future

heigts

ramps

Collaborator

Mariann Vestboestad Marthinsen

25 years old, married. Originally from Fitjar and lives on Minde

Recently graduated as a social educator and is an active athlete.

She amputated her right leg from the middle of her thigh when she was two years old after a car accident. The accident also caused some minor damage to her lower right arm.

She is a competing athlete. In swimming she holds seventeen world records, thirty Norwegian gold medals, one silver and one gold medal in the world championships and two Olympic bronze medals from Athens and Beijing. Last Year she switched from swimming to cross country skiing.

For walking she uses an electric prosthetic leg.

An electric prosthetic leg compensates for the physical strain and provides resistance when the knee is bent. In a walking movement the leg will automatically bend backwards when it is lifted from the ground.

The limb contains an electronic processor so it can adjust according to the users walking pattern.

She has few limitations when it comes to tasks in day to day life, more of a like/dislike situation. For instance since her walk is a bit slower than her surroundings, she prefers shopping malls over shopping streets. She’s not too fond of slippery surfaces, and long stretches of hard surfaces can make it uncomfortable to walk.

In some situations she uses a wheelchair, but she prefers to walk. The treatment she gets in a wheelchair can be bothersome and her physical situation is often misunderstood.

She lives in a regular apartment on the third floor without an elevator. The apartment has no aiding equipment.

She likes to take off her prosthetic leg at home and move around on one foot, in some situations with some help of the furniture. Her sense of balance is well developed so jumping on one leg from one room to the other while carrying something, can be performed without difficulties.

When asked what kind apartment she would prefer she answered that a compact one story solution placed on ground level would be more practical than the apartment she and her husband lives in now.

We found out that we share some of the same passions, the element of water. She said that water made her feel both comfortable and strong. When we compared lap times it marked the difference between a world record holder athlete and just another regular guy. Today she has directed her focus on cross country skiing and already collected a couple of medals. Currently she is preparing for the 2010 Vancouver Special Olympics with 25 hours a week on primary exercise and about 8 hours on secondary training.

Picking up on Mariann’s likes and dislikes; regarding mobility she is very aware of surfaces and their physical character. Her preferred outdoor surface is a hard packed gravel, equal to a forest path or road. This kind of surface has a large amount of friction and is softer than asphalt. Indoors she prefers a material similar to wall to wall carpet. This is practical because the high friction makes the day to day tasks easier and less tiresome. When bending down to pick up something she is solely dependent on her left leg and is therefore very reliant on a good surface adjusted to her need for stability and friction.

She introduced me to what is called the “GAP” model. It explains the relationship between the abilities and expectations in society. A gap between these two defines a handicap.

handicap

abilities

expectations

ability to change

ability to improve

Material

Talking with Mariann I found it somewhat difficult to explain the concept of the material task. First I thought that the material could be something that decreased the gap between us. Immediately I thought of water. A material we both knew.

But, I wanted the material to reduce her gap with the surroundings, not just the two of us.

So, I took a step back and tried to focus more on qualities. Friction was a quality that concerned her. This character seemed like a good start. It was something physical and we could use different samples to create a discussion.

By starting with just a quality, it left more options open to further collaboration and development.

The quality of friction assembeled within in a system or framework.

It could help the process by introducing new discussions.

We could discuss space, light or just the quality of the material.