Contra*

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com.

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com.

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com.

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com.

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com.

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com.

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com.

For more information on our guest, show notes, and transcript please go to criticaldesignlab.com

Each conversation featured in Disability Meets Architecture draws on a different productive friction and places two activists, architects, designers, writers or artists in dialogue. This one, the introduction to our series, takes place at the Round Tower, Rundetårn, in Copenhagen. It was recorded just as we were planning the series when Jos and Aimi found themselves in the city at the same time. This tower, completed in 1642 for Christian IV of Denmark, features an equestrian ramp which would enable a horse and carriage to rise 34.8m to the observatory at the top. This ramp is not accessible under design guidance. However, it highlights how a design feature, often associated with access, is reimagined as desirable, going as far as displacing the staircase as the primary way to move vertically up this 17th C. tower. It shows how thinking differently about how we move through space, beyond the human, beyond the upright human, can create different forms of pleasurable architecture.This episode features Aimi Hamraie (they/them), founder and director of Critical Design Lab, a multi-disciplinary and multi-institution arts and design collaborative rooted in disability culture. Aimi is author of Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability (University of Minnesota Press, 2017) and host of the Contra* podcast on disability and design. They are a 2022 United States Artists Fellow, Canada Research Chair in Technology, Society, and Disability and Associate Professor of Social Science at York University.Aimi will be in conversation with Jos Boys (she/her), founder and co-director of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project with Zoe Partington. Jos was also part of Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative in the late 1970s and 80s in the UK. Through her work, Jos has co-authored and acted as editor/co-editor on a number of books including Disability, Space, Architecture: A Reader (2017), Doing Disability Differently: An alternative handbook on architecture, dis/ability and designing for everyday life (2014) and Making Space: Women and the Man Made Environment by Matrix (1984/2022). Jos is an Honorary Associate Professor at UCL (UK), and served as a Guest Professor at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen (2022–2025).To read a transcript and watch the accompanying video, visit criticaldesignlab.com. Find out more about Aimi’s work here: Websites: aimihamraie.com criticaldesignlab.com labsforliberation.orgFind out more about Jos’s work here: Website: josboys.co.uk disordinaryarchitecture.co.uk matrixfeministarchitecturearchive.co.ukA film accompanies this episode and is available on both DisOrdinary and Critical Design Lab’s websites.As always DMA is brought to you by The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and Critical Design Lab. Your hosts are Aimi Hamraie and Jos Boys, with Scar Barclay Paul DeFazio supporting the series production. Ilana Nevins is our editor.This miniseries is funded by The Graham Foundation.You can find out more about this project and related projects at disordinaryarchitecture.co.uk and criticaldesignlab.com.

This episode celebrates Alice Wong, crip ancestor and disabled oracle, through her collaborations with the Critical Design Lab and Contra* podcast. 

On this episode, Aimi Hamraie and Kelsie Acton reflect on this season of Contra*, their work with the Remote Access Archives, and their hopes for how the archives will be used. They also share about their own experiences of finding remote access in their disability communities,and how they archived remote access with the Critical Design Lab team. On this episode, Aimi Hamraie and Kelsie Acton reflect on this season of Contra*, their work with the Remote Access Archives, and their hopes for how the archives will be used. They also share about their own experiences of finding remote access in their disability communities,and how they archived remote access with the Critical Design Lab team. Themes: Remote access and archiving remote accessDisability communities and collaborative access For a full episode transcript, visit criticaldesignlab.comLinks: Remote Access ArchiveThemes: Remote access and archiving remote accessDisability communities and collaborative access Links: Remote Access Archive

This episode, we hear from India Harville, an African American, queer, disabled activist, consultant, public speaker, somatics practitioner, and performance artist. India details her own experience with remote access before and during the pandemic, and the ways that the disability community continues to innovate and experiment to find more ways to connect, find joy, and build community across space and access. For a full episode transcript, visit criticaldesignlab.comThemes: Disability advocacy and justiceRemote access in the chronic illness communityZoom participation and community buildingLinks: India’s website,Embraced BodyIndia on LinkedinRemote Access Archives

This episode, we hear from Brian Lobel, a white man who was diagnosed with cancer and co-founded of the Sex with Cancer project. Lobel takes us into the world of cancer, queer sex advocacy, disabled pleasure, and the role of hotlines and online spaces as essential remote access for anyone searching for answers to their most intimate questions. For a full episode transcript, visit criticaldesignlab.comThemes: Body change and cancerCancer and disability community / cultureCOVID-19 pandemic era and disability advocacyDisabled pleasure, disabled sexPatient-led advocacy,Queer sex education, sex toyssocial model of disability, Telephone hotlines and remote accessLinks: Sex with Cancer websiteBrian Lobel’s websiteRemote Access Archive

What has been the role of remote access before and during the COVID-19 pandemic for the disability community? In this mini-episode, Kelsie looks at Cripping Pandemic Learning, documents developed by Danielle E. Lorenz and Hannah Sullivan Facknitz to support access for disabled students to online learning. These documents highlight the collaboration and simplicity of access-knowledge sharing common to disability culture. For a full episode description, visit criticaldesignlab.comLinks:Remote Access Archive

This episode, we hear from Katie Goldfinch, a white, nonbinary person and solidarity worker with Touretteshero. Katie gives us insight into the disability arts scene in the UK, how Touretteshero navigates the pandemic, and how they are working hard to share collective joy, education, creativity, and curiosity with kids and teachers remotely. For a full episode transcript, visit criticaldesignlab.comThemes: Remote access, collaborative access, and educationCreating joy and collaboration remotelyDisabled kids and disability artsPlay and performance Links: Touretteshero websiteRemote Access Archive