Universal Design Africa: Master Class For Built Environment (CPD Credits)

About the event:

BOOK NOW! CPD POINTS FOR PROFESSIONALS

Bookings are essential. Discounted price for Open Design

Registration on the day from 8:30

No matter what we design, it will always impact on people! We have the power to change behaviour, how people socialise, communicate, travel and connect.

To design a more inclusive and accessible world Universal Design should be the norm not the exception!

EMPOWER YOURSELF WITH UD SKILLS AND MAKE REAL AND SUSTAINABLE CHANGE IN THE WORLD!

UD AFRICA will offer a CPD accredited full day workshop on Universal Access / Universal Design which by the way should be the norm/second nature when we design anything if we want to stay relevant and contribute to the design of a far more human friendly, accessible world.

IDEAL CANDIDATES: Professional and Candidate Architects, Landscape Architects, Interior Designers, Architectural Technologists, Urban Designers and Town Planners.

WHY IS UNIVERSAL DESIGN SO IMPORTANT?

WHY DO WE NEED TO CHANGE TO THE WAY WE DESIGN AND STRATEGISE?

People with diverse human needs (people with disabilities, functional cognitive and physical limitations), on a continuous basis, make use of facilities, services and environments. In order for all people to confidently use facilities, services and environments and to enjoy equal access, environmental and cognitive barriers that compromise people’s functional ability, need to be carefully transformed.

The Constitution and other legislative tools require that environments and services be usable and equally accessible to all people. The aim is for all people, regardless of their needs, to be able to make full use of facilities, services and environments, both in the public and private realm. All people, regardless of their age, functional ability or limitations, race or social background have the right to enjoy ease of access, comfort and dignity and to experience, on an equal level, the same facilities, services and environments that are on offer. In order for people with diverse human needs to experience equal and equitable access, significant role-players and decision makers need to be informed, equipped and skilled to bridge barriers and gaps that have historically prevented easy access for all.

Pivotal to enhancing any user’s experience of facilities, services or in an environment, is the understanding of the notions of Universal Access as well as how to overcome imposed limitations and then schedule changes for roll-out to ensure constructive progress is made towards inclusion. A full day workshop would equip participants with an understanding of the concept of Universal Design to design for the inclusion of people with different needs, and will enable participants to identify areas where Part S of the SANS 10400 could be applied, as well as provide the participants with an overall understanding of legislation that supports the use of Part S of the National Building Regulations

Workshop facilitators:

Colette Fransolet & Phillip Thompson

Speakers

Colette Fransolet

Colette is an MTech in Design graduate from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), after her BTech degree she managed the design and production processes for an NGO who created business opportunities for people with disabilities in Cape Town. In 2009 she left the NGO sector to freelance in the field of Universal Design (UD) whilst completing her MTech with a focus on UD. She started consulting with IDC Consultants in 2009 and in 2015 started UD Africa, a company focused on the mainstreaming of UD and Universal Access. Her work and projects includes reviews and reports on all 10 Gautrain Stations, stadium seating counts for accessible seating during the 2010 World Cup, staff training and training monitoring for the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa and Santam, training facilitation, research and guideline development for both National Department of Transport and SALGA (South African Local Government Authority) as well as researching, reporting and training for various Integrated Public Transport Networks (IPTN’s) in South Africa, such as eThekwini, Ekurhuleni, George Municipality and the City of Johannesburg. In October 2012, Colette was invited to attend the briefing for a design competition in Lille, France in which she represented CPUT and South Africa. The competition consisted of a representation of 22 schools from across the world, in which Colette was the only student representative from South Africa. The competition was related to urban rejuvenation of three districts in the Metropolitan of Lille in order to attract people to the areas which have been left desolate since the demise of the textile industry. She also participated as a “Maximizer” in the Design Can Do workshop held in Cape Town in 2012, which focused on attracting and designing to accommodate various forms of non-motorised transport in the Fringe area of the City of Cape Town. Colette has also been a part-time lecturer in the Industrial Design Department at CPUT on Universal Design, Technology as well as Three-Dimensional Design from 2011 to the end of 2016. She also project managed the Universal Access reviews across three Universities during 2013/2014 which was University of Cape Town, University of Johannesburg and University of Fort Hare. The Universities were audited through a software application (APP) for which Colette had developed the content with a specific reference to the SANS 10400 Part S (2011). The App is revolutionary in terms of its ability to capture large amounts of detailed information in excessively shorter time frames, which is accurate, consistent and reliable. Since the start of 2015, Colette has been intimately involved with the Universal Access revolution that has been undertaken by the Stellenbosch Municipality and more recently the University of Stellenbosch, which included Universal Access reviews of more than 55 municipal buildings and main pedestrian circulation routes, as well as policy adjustments, training of Building Control Officers in light of the requirements of SANS 10400 Part S (2011), awareness raising and overall municipal staff engagement to review operations and procedures to encompass and reflect the municipalities commitment to Universal Access which resulted in a context specific, relevant and applicable implementation plan. Subsequently, Stellenbosch Municipality is the only local authority in South Africa to be progressing towards a Universal Access Policy. Colette and a team of external consultants, including road and traffic engineers and researchers from UCT, were responsible for the development of National Technical Requirements (1) for the National Department of Transport, which will result in technical guidelines on pedestrian crossings related to all forms of road based transport. She also headed up the research and draft scripting of policy guidelines for SALGA to assist other local authorities in developing Universal Access Policy’s. Colette’s expertise in Universal Design range from the built environment, information dissemination and communication and she is passionate about research, teaching and knowledge sharing on the paradigm of Universal Design. She hosted South Africa’s first, two-day international conference on universal design in 2014, with some of the most renowned personalities from across the globe in the sphere of Universal Design, including Bob Topping, Edward Steinfeld, Joseph Kwan and Fionnuala Rogerson. And since 2015, Colette has been selected at the Country Representative for GAATES (Global Alliance on Accessible Technologies and Environments) which is a leading international organization dedicated to the promotion of accessibility of the built and virtual environments. And since the beginning of 2017 Colette has been involved with the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design Thinking (d-school) which is based at UCT GSB in the Waterfront. Here she is both a foundation and executive programme coach for Design Thinking.

Phillip Thompson

With a primary background in architecture, Phillip Thompson has broad experience in property development in Southern Africa, North America and the Caribbean. Since returning to South Africa in 1985 he held a partnership in a South African based architectural consultancy. In 1989 he was involved in an aircraft accident in Mozambique, generating injuries, which resulted in T12/L1 paraplegia. He formed a new consultancy in 1993 with a broader focus on community participation in development, environmental management and universal design. He was involved in the restructuring of the disability sector as an executive member of Disabled People South Africa from 1991 to 1999, in addition to chairing the South African Federal Council on Disability from 1994 to 1999. In 1992 he started the National Environmental Accessibility Programme the first comprehensive programme to address accessibility in South Africa. He was the Executive Director of the South African Federal Council on Disability up to his resignation in 2003, to allow him to focus on consulting and his corporate governance roles. He has been directly involved with a number of significant national development programmes and community facilitation processes. He served on the South African Tourism Board from 1997 to 2000 and has been directly involved with evaluating and developing standards related to the tourism industry since 1990. He chaired the Satour Standards and Grading Committee to the implementation of the South African Tourism Grading Council and is currently a Council Member, as well as a Board Member of the Tourism and Sport, Standard Education and Training Authority. In the corporate world Phillip Thompson has chaired the Transnet Retirement Funds Property Trust and was a Director of South Africa's transport parastatal, the V and A Waterfront Holding Company, the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront Pty Ltd as well as Chairing the Board of the Victoria and Alfred Marina in Cape Town. He is still a Board Member of Equity Aviation, Africa's largest ground handling Aviation Company. He is one of the principal members of Universal Design Africa, a consulting company that offers a range of services relating to universal design and universal access. Phillip has previously consulted as a Specialist Advisor to national agencies such as the Airports Company of South Africa, The South African Railway Commuter Corporation, The City of Cape Town, The City of Durban, The University of KwaZulu Natal, The National Department of Public Works, The Western Cape Provincial Government, and The South African National Parks. Private clients who have commissioned Phillip’s services include Sanlam, ABSA Bank, Discovery Health, Shell South Africa, Protea Hotels, Southern Sun Hotels, The Kersner Hotel Group, Golden Arrow Bus Company, The Nelson Mandela Museum and the Robben Island Museum. In addition to local consulting in South Africa, he has undertaken Universal Access Consulting in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America for the built environment as well as tourism and transport agencies.