Creating a culture of inclusive design
A key feature of the Olympic Park, inclusive design has been embraced by the UK construction industry in the years since the Olympic Games London 2012.
Inclusive design seeks to create safe and accessible environments for every member of the community, regardless of disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, race or faith. It helps people experience the world around them in a way that is fair and equal and seeks to create buildings, places and spaces that are easily accessible and truly inclusive for everyone.
That philosophy underpinned the construction of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and continues to be pursued there today. Combined with the work of the Paralympic Legacy Advisory Group, this inclusivity drive inspired the creation of the Built Environment Professional Education Project (BEPE). Launched in December 2013, the project sought to build on the success of London 2012.
A five-year project, BEPE recognised that inclusive design had not, to that point, been a meaningful part of the professional education or training of built-environment professionals such as architects, surveyors, engineers, town planners and facilities managers. To address this, it worked with professional bodies in the sector, encouraging them to review and update their standards and put a greater emphasis on inclusive design.
The project led to the UK’s Construction Industry Council (CIC) developing an Essential Principles Guide to creating accessible and inclusive environments. Aimed at built-environment professionals, the guide has been endorsed by more than 15 professional bodies. The CIC, which has a membership of 500,000 individual professionals and more than 25,000 construction consultancies, also issues an Inclusive Environments Recognition certificate to organisations abiding by these principles.
BEPE was also instrumental in the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) becoming the first body to amend its Professional Standards Framework, with the introduction of the Managing Accessibility and Inclusion standard in November 2014. In further highlighting the issue of inaccessibility, it set a benchmark for facilities management professionals to attain.
In embracing BEPE and the systemic change it aimed to bring about, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) made inclusive environments one of its Continuing Professional Development core curriculum topics. Its members are required to study these topics every year.
The RIBA has continued to champion the methodology. As part of its Inclusion by Design Festival in late September/early October 2020, it ran a virtual event entitled “Disability and design: what makes a building accessible?” Involving a panel of experts in accessible design, the event looked at the need for building projects to contemplate access and inclusion from the outset through to completion.
Accessibility was a key feature in the construction of London’s Olympic Park. Every aspect of the park was designed with inclusivity in mind, from the positioning of street furniture to the provision of multi-faith facilities, and from mobility scooter parking to contrasting surfaces on wheelchair ramps to enable the visually impaired to see them.
On the back of this drive for inclusive design came the launch in 2016 of the world’s first Global Disability Innovation Hub based at Here East. The Hub brings together the world’s best academics, disability experts, designers and communities to improve the lives of disabled people across the world through technology, co-design and innovation. University College London, recognised globally for its world-class research, leads the team delivering the Hub in the long term.