Access to All Areas at the Universal Design Symposium

November 3, 2016

Auckland Design Office, Design for Auckland

Newly elected Mayor Phil Goff warmly welcomed attendees to Access All Areas: Universal Design Symposium held at the Viaduct Events Centre last week. Universal Design is the idea that people should be at the center of every project, whether it is a building, a park, a street or a neighbourhood.

Want to know more about Universal Design and it’s goals, click the following link to watch a short video: What is Universal Design?

The New Mayor, Phil Goff

“Good design is vital to meet the needs of all people, of all ages and abilities so that everyone can enjoy Auckland safely and easily. It is obvious that all of us actually pass through those life-stages, from birth, childhood, to our senior years and to the end of our life. We need to have a city that copes for all of us at different stages of our life and need to take into account that one in five of us have some form of disability. We need to design our buildings, parks, streets and neighbourhoods so that we cater for the needs of all of our population” – Auckland Mayor Phil Goff.

Symposium attendees were from a variety of design, architecture, design, development related disciplines and the disability community. “I found the whole event very informative and glad I attended” – Symposium attendee. The symposium showcased the diversity of universal design including public buildings and shared spaces, workplaces, housing, and transport.

Valerie Fletcher, Executive Director of the Institute of Human Centered Design in Boston delivered keynote presentations for both the Symposium and Auckland Conversations, attended by a record 550 people.You can watch this talk here. Valerie spoke about the importance of people in design and provided international case studies of great design. She stressed that Auckland could lead the way in Universal design.

Keynote speaker, Valerie Fletcher

Attendees also heard from key players in the Universal design field including Auckland Design Office, Be. Accessible, The Blind Foundation, Boffa Miskell, CCS Disability Action, Lifemark, Moller Architects, Office for Disability Issues, Te Roopu Waiora Trust and Dr Zena O’Connor.

Auckland Council thanks the wide variety of people who attended and helped make the Universal Design Symposium a success last week including sponsors Lifemark and Resene.