Disability as Method

From Alt-Text to Alternative Knowledge Environments

Science Communication is often ocular centric and verbalized. So what would it mean to communicate scientific knowledge to blind or low-vision and deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals not as accessibility compliance, but as knowledge project? This project takes “accessibility” not as providing more-or-less derivative descriptive translations or AI generated alt-texts, but proposes disability as method to produce alternative knowledge environments, thus enriching the epistemological experience instead of offering an often impoverished “alternative”.

Screenshot from Alt Text as Poetry, a collaborative project by Bojana Coklyat and Finnegan Shannon exploring alt text as a creative practice. Courtesy of Finnegan Shannon.

Facts

Project partners

Anna-Maria Meister and Anna Luise Schubert – Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (Max-Planck-Institut).

HumaNova

Excellence in Education in the Humanoid Supernova Era

HumaNova is a European Centres of Vocational Excellence project that prepares vocational education and training systems for the emerging era of human–humanoid collaboration by embedding humanoid-related skills into education and work-based learning. It establishes a transnational network of centres, innovation hubs, and application-driven labs to anticipate skills needs, co-create curricula, and pilot training programmes linked to real-world humanoid use cases. The project focuses on human-centric, inclusive, and responsible adoption of humanoid technologies, ensuring that digital transformation supports workers rather than replaces them. Fully aligned with EU priorities, HumaNova strengthens regional innovation ecosystems and equips Europe’s workforce for the social, technological, and ethical challenges of humanoid integration.

Facts

Project partners

Scuola Di Robotica (Italien), Campus Des Métiers Et Des Qualifications Mécanique Con (Frankreich), Stäubli Faverges SCA (Frankreich), Pricewaterhousecoopers Business Solutions Ae (Griechenland), Akmi Anonimi Ekpaideftiki Etairia (Griechenland), Gizelis Robotics Anonymi Viomichaniki Emporiki Eta (Griechenland), Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum (Belgien), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgien), Pal Robotics Slu (Spanien), Fundacio Eurecat (Spanien), Foreningen Odense Robotics (Dänemark), Syddansk Erhvervsskole (Dänemark), Foreningen Eu Og Internationalt Samarbejde I (Dänemark), MadLab 2.0 (Italien), Europäischer Verband Beruflicher Bildungsträger (Europa/Deutschland), Bk-consult GmbH (Deutschland), KUKA Deutschland GmbH (Deutschland).

Reframing Access through Art, Architecture, and Technology

How Accessibility Expands Aesthetic Possibilities

This project reframes access as a situated condition that reveals how environments, technologies, and forms of communication are unevenly structured. Disability is understood not as located in the body alone, but as emerging through socio-spatial relations—relational, contextual, and embedded in the environments we inhabit. From this perspective, barriers such as inaccessible interfaces, limited modes of communication, and exclusionary spatial design continue to marginalize disabled people. These barriers do more than restrict access: they actively shape who is able to participate in knowledge production and creative expression. Access is often narrowly framed in terms of compliance—reduced to standardized solutions such as wheelchair ramps, regulations, and minimum requirements. This project repositions accessibility as a creative practice. In collaboration with engineers, disabled artists, and designers, it treats access as a dynamic, evolving process that reshapes how we experience space, language, and the built environment. Moving between abstraction and material practice, it links theoretical frameworks from disability studies to interventions in design, interfaces, and artistic media. Situated at the intersection of disability studies, architecture, technology, and art, the project does not simply aim to remove barriers. Instead, it reconfigures design and communication by centering accessibility from the outset. Through practices such as alt-text, easy-to-read language, and multisensory engagement, it rethinks how spaces, objects, and digital environments can become legible, usable, and meaningful for a plurality of bodies and minds. Reframing Access investigates how accessibility can expand aesthetic possibilities, reconfigure relationships between users and spaces, and challenge entrenched hierarchies of design. By understanding access as an evolving and relational practice, the project offers new ways to think about difference, belonging, and the role of design in shaping cultural and artistic experience.

Donald Rodney, Psalms, 1997 – software, interactive motorised wheelchair, laptop and sensors (Tate Collection, London). ©Donald Rodney.

Facts

Construction of a circular, timber-based pavilion using reclaimed wood for the Bad Urach Garden Show 2027, with subsequent reuse as a bicycle station along the Brühlbach Trail

The City of Bad Urach is developing a pavilion for the 2027 Garden Show along a new cycling path, designed consistently according to principles of circular construction. The focus is on reusing reclaimed timber from a deconstruction project in Billigheim-Ingenheim, reversible construction methods, and material-appropriate detailing. The timber is analyzed and categorized, forming the basis for both the architectural design and structural system. During the Garden Show, the pavilion will serve as a venue for selling regional products; afterwards, it will be repurposed as a rest stop and bicycle station. Developed as an interdisciplinary teaching project at KIT, it results in a feasible prototype with exemplary character for the reuse of building components.

Facts

Project partners

City of Bad Urach, Eigenbetrieb Gartenschau

Project website

SONET

Seniors wellbeing and safety on the NET young generations thanks to the use of augmented reality

The main aim of the project is to contribute to seniors well-aging with the use of ICT, knowledge on media literacy and ambient assisted living in a cyber secure way. The project will increase the safety, cybersecurity and engagement of seniors in social life and their well-being. We will enable senoirs and older learners to use e-products and e-services that provide safe, high quality and independent lives.

Facts

Project partners

ACUFADE (Spain), E-SENIORS (France), Asociatia Bridge Language Study House (Romania), PARASOL (Poland).

ARTILACS

Artistic Intelligence in Latent Creative Spaces

The ARTILACS Research Training Group “Artistic Intelligence in Latent Creative Spaces” focuses on the concept of “artistic intelligence.” This addresses a critical yet affirmative engagement with developments in artificial intelligence (AI) within the context of artistic practice. ARTILACS aims to investigate the extent to which a hybrid combination of AI-supported, latent spaces and traditional knowledge spaces of artistic practice opens up opportunities for new forms of creativity and insight that can be methodologically captured within the concept of “Artistic Intelligence.”

ARTILACS logo by ARTICACS

Facts

Project partners

HafenCity University of Hamburg, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg University of Fine Arts, Hamburg University of Music and Theatre, University of Lübeck, Lübeck University of Music.

Project website

Louis Kahn – Modeling Space

The Model as a Tool of the Architectural Imagination

[...] The project builds upon the knowledge, insights, and archival findings gained through the preceding four-year DFG project, „Louis Kahn: Drawing, Thinking, Architecture“ (ME 4149/1–2). That project – which enabled the research and analysis of thousands of drawings housed in Kahn´s archive – is the first systematic and critical study of Kahn´s design process through his drawings and those of his office. While an in-depth study of Kahn´s use of architectural models is in itself of considerable value, when regarded together with the foregoing study of Kahn´s uses of drawing, it adds up to a uniquely comprehensive survey of a single master architect´s culture of designing. Unlike previous studies, which have focused on Kahn´s built work and considered his models only insofar as they illuminate those buildings, the proposed study seeks to understand Kahn´s use of this design tool as an independent source of insight into his designerly intelligence and work. At the same time, the study sees itself as an attempt to rectify the general paucity of research on the architectural model in the design process. [...]

Facts

Project partner

University of Pennsylvania

Works Archive Conrad Roland

Hanging Houses, Spatial Nets and the Categorization of Architectural Knowledge

Conrad Roland, an internationally active architect and engineer, is best known for his innovative rope net constructions, which became popular playground equipment worldwide. But his legacy goes far beyond the well-known climbing nets: With visionary high-rise suspended constructions and experimental space rope nets, Roland radically questioned conventional architectural concepts. His sense of order was also original: Roland structured his research work with the help of a specially developed color code. The uniqueness of this classification system is to be preserved and at the same time integrated into an existing archival logic. This results in exciting new perspectives on methodological approaches and challenges in the archiving and processing of complex holdings.

Works Archive Conrad Roland in saai. ©Manuela Gantner

Facts

Project website

All to Zero

Strategy for Determining and Reducing GHG Emissions as the Dominant Control Instrument for the Circular Economy in the Construction Industry in Germany

This doctoral thesis investigates how targeted reductions of environmental impacts in Germany’s building sector can achieve GHG neutrality by 2045 and stimulate innovation toward a circular economy. International models and methods are analysed and adapted to the German context to quantify life cycle environmental impacts of current construction activities using building LCAs. Results are compared with national emission reduction targets, considering cross sectoral decarbonisation, enabling a scientifically grounded development of policy measures and control instruments to reduce emissions and promote circularity in the construction sector.

Simultaneous reduction in environmental impact alongside the growth of the circular economy. ©NB, Elene Boerman

Facts

INBUILT

Advancing Sustainable Building Practices in Europe

The Horizon Europe project INBUILT promotes circular construction by integrating digitalisation and the reuse of locally sourced materials. It develops prefabricated wall elements made from reclaimed wood and biogenic materials. The project addresses barriers such as contaminants and metal impurities, and establishes on-site testing and grading processes for recovered timber. Reversible design enables repair, reuse and long-term carbon storage, extending timber lifecycles by up to 200 years.

Project partners

Consortium of 16 partners, including: Université Côte d’Azur (coordinator), CEA, University of Stuttgart, KIT, Leipfinger-Bader GmbH, ITeC, Indresmat, Heinrich Feess GmbH & Co. KG, Baltifloc SIA, Filiater, Greenovate! Europe, Biofab Zero, Lux Façade Engineering, Eskilara, Terrasense.

Project website

MuDoCo

Multidimensional Comfort Models – Development of a Systematic Approach to Theory, Experimental Design, and Modeling

The primary target of this project is to significantly advance the understanding of crossed main effects and interactions in multi-domain comfort perception through laboratory experiments. Specific objectives are to 1) create a consistent and updated knowledge base about the impact of indoor environmental stressors on human perception; 2) develop a systematic approach and theoretical framework for future experimental multi-domain studies; 3) develop a structure for a general multi-domain comfort model; 4) apply and evaluate different modelling approaches by exploiting experimental data; and 5) evaluate thoroughly the strengths and weaknesses of these modelling approaches.

Experimental design to approach multi-domain comfort effects in the MuDoCo project (IV: independent variable; DV: dependent variable; IAQ: Indoor Air Quality; IEQ: Indoor Environmental Quality)

Facts

Project partners

University hospital RWTH Aachen, TU Graz.

RadComf

Study of the effect of thermal radiation on thermal perception and thermal comfort

Preliminary work shows that well-known models for heat and comfort perception do not always accurately reflect the perception of radiant heat flux from the environment. Particularly in cases of asymmetric temperature distribution, their suitability for assessing thermal comfort in a room is limited. The goal of this project is therefore to better understand the influence of radiative heat exchange on thermal sensation at various body locations through a series of experiments with human subjects. Experimental investigations are conducted in the LOBSTER indoor climate test facility and the collected data serve as the basis for improving algorithms in the UC Berkeley comfort model.

Experimental design to approach multi-domain comfort effects in the MuDoCo project (IV: independent variable; DV: dependent variable; IAQ: Indoor Air Quality; IEQ: Indoor Environmental Quality)

Facts

Project partners

University hospital RWTH Aachen, TU Graz.

DataFEE

Deck-In-Vent

Development and demonstration of ceiling-integrated fans during refurbishment of the County Administrative Building in Dillingen

The challenge of this project was to ensure thermal comfort during summer without active cooling as part of a refurbishment strategy. To validate the effect of fans integrated in acoustic ceiling panels on user satisfaction, experiments were conducted in the indoor climate test facility LOBSTER at KIT. The results showed general acceptance and a high level of comfort among participants. The influence of temperature on the perception of indoor temperature was more pronounced than that of adjustable air velocity and airflow direction. A survey conducted in the building after the renovation revealed that the ceiling fans were generally considered effective and had a positive impact on the indoor climate.

Scheme for optimizing the data utilization process chain in buildings ©bst

Facts

Project partners

IRWTH Aachen, Fraunhofer IBP, ABB AG, BayernFM.

Egon Eiermann Digital

A digitization project fort he work archive

Egon Eiermann’s architectural archive is considered one of the most significant collections of an architect’s work, both nationally and internationally. The total volume of the collection amounts to over 30,000 archival items. The goal of the “Egon Eiermann Digital” project is the systematic digitization of archival sources from Egon Eiermann’s work archive, taking into account technical capabilities as well as applicable copyrights. Over the course of the project, more than 7,000 digitized items were created and tagged with metadata, the most important of which—title of the digitized item, project title, project period, people involved, building type, country, state, city, dimensions of the original, scale, object category, technique/material, and keywords—can be viewed by users of the website.

Facts

Project website

Domino Zirkular

Circular Construction from Reclaimed Material

As part of the “Domino Zirkular” project, the Chair of Circular Timber Construction (KHB) is investigating how materials from demolition, particularly reclaimed wood, can be systematically integrated into residential construction. The project addresses this issue on various levels: from the development of individual components on a 1:1 scale and their assembly into a structural system to a building concept for multi-story residential construction. The project was initiated and developed as part of the curriculum and is now to be transformed into a research project. The approaches are to be further developed and presented in a demonstration building at the International Building Exhibition 2027.

Elements of Domino Zirkular, Roofing made from leftover pieces of gutter. ©Benjamin Stöhrer/KHB

Facts

Project partners

Digital Design and Fabrication KIT, Konstruieren und Entwerfen KIT, Design of Structures KIT, Holzbau und Baukonstruktion KIT, Stuttgarter Wohnungs- und Städtebaugesellschaft mbH, Internationale Bauausstellung StadtRegion Stuttgart 2027.

Project website

Saai | iaas Residency Program

The Residency Program aims to open up the saai to international research on its collections, while also fostering dialogue about this research and encouraging critical reflection on the archive team’s own work. The goal is to strengthen interdisciplinary research at the saai within the newly established iaas | Center for International Architectural Archival Studies. As part of the program, which has been held annually since 2025, up to three fellows may be invited for a research residency of 4–6 weeks. A public workshop, a podcast episode, and the publication of a volume in the saai’s brochure series ensure the visibility and accessibility of the results.

A look into the storage vault at the state mint. ©Bernd Seeland

Facts

Project website