Diversity is Strength
This week we started a new project. A really exciting new project to build a new riding centre for the disabled in one of the wide loops of the River Forth by Stirling.
The design team held the inception meeting with our client, the wonderful charity Equi-power, at their riding centre in the Borders, where Susie Elliot MBE gave a passionate description of the many benefits that contact with horses brings to peoples physical and mental health.
Activities including riding, equestrian vaulting and caring for horses bring a range of benefits to people of all ages and backgrounds with diverse physical and mental abilities, including people without the use of their limbs, impaired senses, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, autism, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, families in need of support and school groups.
Of course, being in the company of, and interacting with, animals is a natural thing and good for us all. The Riding for Disabled Association offers a safe and well-managed environment for both animals and people. It’s also good for a design team.
It’s a wonderful but rare thing to have a project where we consider the needs for more than one species as a core need. Doing so broadens our design skills, understanding the physical and sensory environments that will enable two species to thrive together.
We increasingly recognise the importance of designing for the diversity of our own species as well. People vary hugely – in their physical and cognitive abilities, in their culture and resources. Understanding the diversity of our species is not something that design consultants are trained in, but its central to delivering an inclusive and prosperous society.
Designing and adapting our built realm so that it enables all of us to thrive and contribute to our communities and economy at all stages in our lives is at the heart of our just transition to a generative future. It is especially important as we adapt our town centres to become age-friendly environments, as older people become an increasingly significant resource for Scotland. The Dementia Design Centre at Stirling University has been a leading organisation in developing inclusive design guidance in this field, along with Public Health Scotland.
So, at the end of Mental Health Awareness Week, it is great to be looking forward to a project with such potential to explore the contribution that design can make to inclusion. Maybe by considering the needs of our fellow animals more, we will learn to take care of ourselves a little better too.
