Different Bodies

Different Bodies: From workshop to Milan Design Week

No two people are alike, yet we design our environment for the average person. 'DIFFERENT BODIES' puts accessibility and universal design on the agenda in a new way.

In the academic year 2018/2019, a teaching course entitled Different Bodies was held for 150 architecture and design students at the Royal Academy. Here, the students investigated how our physical environment can be arranged so that people with disabilities can participate on an equal footing. The workshop was established in collaboration with international artists as well as young people with disabilities from the Association of Young People with Disabilities (SUMH).

“Different Bodies” gained great impact both internally in relation to the students' approach to inclusion and externally at the Bevica Foundation's Accessibility Prize event, Milan Design Week and Folkemødet on Bornholm.

The Different Bodies exhibition will be shown at the design fair in Milan

The result of the 14-day workshop, in conjunction with the Bevica Foundation's Accessibility Award 2018, was shown at the award ceremony as the exhibition 'DIFFERENT BODIES'.

The exhibition sheds light on a complex issue: How do we create an inclusive society and a community in which all people can participate equally? The architecture and design students have experienced firsthand some of the challenges that people with disabilities experience in their daily lives, and these are the experiences — interpreted as artistic installations — that were later shown in a new form at Milano Design Week 2019 and Tent London.