i feel like a cog for using the terminology but perhaps there is some insight into structuring an argument by which the priniciples in the previous post can be put towards the goals enumerated in this article [pdf].

re: goals of universal design
The first step in developing universal design guidelines is to identify critical success factors (CSFs) that play a key role in any planning and assessment of facilities. CSFs are analyzed according to five major phases of facility planning: Strategic planning, acquisition or lease of real estate, base building planning, interior planning, and maintenance and operation. Each CSF is followed by the description of its objective, the needs of users, and three levels of criteria that include exemplars to achieve the CSF objective.

the following are a series of phrases or prompts that may articulate an entrance into some issues we are being asked to investigate. they may also be seen as some action brackets that can create a procedural entrance to working on the project at large while addressing these issues.

from the universal design brief:
PRINCIPLE ONE: Equitable Use
The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities.
cultural / historical smoothing
a process through which historical and cultural backgrounds and reactions to space and form are reconciled across a diverse constituency while mainting the situational specifics of space, context, program, and access

PRINCIPLE TWO: Flexibility in Use
The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.
democratic delimitation
spaces and moments are bound implicitly by the capabilities of their occupants, the occupants draw the space with their individuated voices and actions

PRINCIPLE THREE: Simple and Intuitive Use
Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user’s experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level.
archetypal wayfinding (stranger’s path, jb jackson)
self-guided tourism
spatial and programmatic orientation that seeks to construct a ’safe’ sequence or procession upon first use that also allows further knowledge of space to be acquired for further interactions, seen as a spatial/architectural concept rather than graphic

PRINCIPLE FOUR: Perceptible Information
The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user’s sensory abilities.
sensory redundancy
synaesthetic meter
sensory suites
spatial character and effect are communicated to all senses, correlative components are sought to blend into a condition that functions similarly as each sense drops away

PRINCIPLE FIVE: Tolerance for Error
The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions.
childproofing, lunatic / prison furniture
enmargin’d acts
ADA * 1.5, exaggeration of buffer zones

PRINCIPLE SIX: Low Physical Effort
The design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue.
occupation in transit (cube, cube 2: hypercube)
pathways of uniform plurality
spaces gain mobility and shift within the space, not for flexibilty but for ease of access, diverse and multiplicitous non-hierarchical (or as ms says, non-hiarchial) access methods for all spaces, stairs, ramps, elevators, ladders, poles, hatches, etc., extreme effort may come in different forms for different folks

PRINCIPLE SEVEN: Size and Space for Approach and Use
Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of user’s body size, posture, or mobility.
gaseous ergonomics
human factors tailoring
how does the sphere of influence of the body expand and contract at different scales, what is the ideal performance of a cavernous space vis-a-vis a shrimpy little body

• john ruskin, albert speer, critical plagiarism
• occupying ruins, ruins occupying
• disenfranchised/discriminated: ghosts, wampyrs, small pox, louis kahn
• “culturally pluristic representation of society”: phes, minorities, mobile elderly, people who read whilst walking
• ahistorical, speaks through character and type over form
• friendly residential face? art is explication of lore, not moderation of tradition
• “water related transportation infrastructure”, dangerous supplement?
• castelvecchio v. interior/museumized digs
• “bldg constrct’d materials from island quarry by inmates”: sustainable and eerie
• a.w.n. pugin, renwick, adaptive revival
• include kahn’s memorial
• this is for the people, cannot take a park away from the people
• “quarantine”, burial at sea
• “19th c gothic romance”, wuthering heights, castle of otranto
• “charity cases in wards on lower flrs and a series of prvt rooms upper stories for paying patients”: not universal design, counter the classist history
• grey gneiss, pointed arches, crenellated cupola
• “garden fabrics”, not a folly, somewhere between useful and curiousity
• 13th century tintern abbey in monmouthshire, palazzo braschi in frascati (setting for la notti del terrore)
• sleeve’d crumbling walls, decay is a form of articulation
• no dogs are allowed on the island, read: only cats
• “1/100 people who died in nyc in 1854 died at renwick”
• 1839: octagon tower at lunatic asylum, designed by ajackson 1982: octagon tower is torched 1999: labor day fire ravages octagon pavilion
• fireworks viewing platform, large theater walls disappear, ruins roof has disappeared

until i get the 100 clams to register next week let this be the post in which documents regarding the competition and program be deposited.

please find the competition website here.

Innovation and delight
Does the entry attempt the unexpected and redefine boundaries?

Preservation/ Adaptive Reuse (Critical for the Historic Preservation Award)
Does the submission address the physical constraints of the ruin, while providing novel or inventive ways to retain or integrate elements of the building into the design?

Program
Is implementation of the program and fulfillment of the target audience integral and evident in the building form?

Site
Does the proposal maximize the unique setting and location of the building, addressing the intangible lore and history of Roosevelt Island, while dealing with immediate concerns of transportation and the potential for enhanced transportation infrastructure?

Universal design
Has the entry tackled the universal design agenda in a holistic, yet innovative, manner?

“The memorial in Shanksville, Pa., will also include pedestrian trails and a roadway leading to a visitor center and the actual crash site, which will be surrounded by a crescent of maple trees. The victims’ names will be inscribed on a white marble wall.”

state park meets graveyard? ill bet the lobby is so strong that even if you won without a marble headstone the families would push to get one. i personally would not want to go and see the name of my loved one listed there, i would know they died there, and i wouldnt feel it was so important to get some second hand sympathy from people who did not even know them. i guess most americans are more interested in public displays of grief, and write texts like ‘lets roll’ to deal with their loss.

lets roll on to “a theory of roosevelt value”