Cara Bremen

The research I conducted for the “In and Out” project primarily addressed the circumstances experienced by people with a disability and/or chronic illness when operating doors. I liked the idea of making doors as accessible as possible for a great many people and I was pleased to discover that a lot of research has already been conducted on the subject.

During my search for legislation already in place, I came across the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA was enacted to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities in the United States of America. It specifies certain requirements needing to be met in many areas of life. This also concerns doors

The act lays down the permissible height, width and closing speed of doors as well as where handles are to be positioned. I found this all so interesting that I wanted to incorporate these provisions into my own design adapted to the needs of the disabled. Even ADA does not cover everything required to make all spaces accessible to people with disabilities.

Thereafter, I principally devoted myself to hands and the concept of gripping. This was a decision influenced by Otl Aicher’s essay Greifen und Begreifen (“Grasping with Hand and Mind”), which in part deals with the mechanics of taking hold of things.

I accordingly selected four health conditions that can give rise to problems opening doors: Parkinson’s disease, strokes, age-related muscular atrophy and either acquired or congenital limb length differences. A characteristic of all of these is that the sufferer is unable to get a purchase with their hands, though the condition’s severity, duration and other consequences also figure large. Such needs and distinctions were far too multifarious, however, to be taken into account in their entirety in my blueprint.

The subject of barrier freedom was nevertheless so important to me that I looked round for an alternative scenario and found it in the catering sector. I wanted to design doors that make leaving and entering the kitchen easier for staff who are generally laden down with crockery and who have, moreover, to get things done in a hurry.

In the process, I came across the model by Johann Schäfer, who incorporated both windows and a variable crockery shelf into his door design. I aimed to adopt and adapt this thought. The idea of a table came to me that could be pulled out from the window in the kitchen door and which would additionally feature a kind of metal railing. It would be possible to suspend gadgets that simplify work sequences from this: hooks for towels or a bucket for waste food, for instance. As regards its design, I opted for semi-circular corners and slightly off-centre positioning so the door can nevertheless be fully opened.

The railing was to be fitted with a handle indicating where the table can be folded down. I ultimately opted for a solution in timber that, far from conflicting with the door’s overall looks, would seamlessly blend in with them. Merely the handle was to be of a softer material as a means of making its function more clearly discernible. It proved impossible to produce the final model in timber within the time limit prescribed, hence a full-size Kapaline door 0.4 inches thick and fitted with a work table was used instead. This material had different properties to timber, which led to slight changes being made to the folding mechanism and the table’s support system.

Although I did not consciously proceed with Otl Aicher’s design philosophy in mind, my final blueprint undeniably bears similarities to his approach.

While I didn't intentionally follow Otl Aicher's design philosophy, it's unmistakable that my final design bears similarities to his approach.

Metal frames from which hooks with tools hang are specifically to be seen in Die Küche zum Kochen - Studie für bulthaup. The shelf and hooks that appear in my own model greatly resemble this idea.