[Dicho por Rab] La Future Architecture Platform es una institución eslovena financiada por el Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Ahí, arquitectos e investigadores de diseño de todas partes del continente se reúnen para presentar a los curadores de decenas de museos europeos de arquitectura, arte contemporáneo y diseño sus propuestas de investigación para ser convertidas en potenciales exhibiciones.
Mi proyecto The 0.75 Scale fue seleccionado entre los 15 para presentación, y ahí hablé sobre los ejemplos de desidia ergonómica que había observado en los Países Bajos, contrastados con casos de inclusión y adaptación en Japón. Por ejemplo: la medida de las barras de auxilio en los metros de Ámsterdam y Osaka.
Para muestra, una de las partes de la propuesta.
And then last year I was in Japan, and within two hours of getting there I realised what was wrong: the metro cars in Amsterdam weren’t designed for me. In 2013 the GVB, the city’s metro company, purchased some new M5 Metropolis trains from Alstom, and there are now 28 in total running. Whereas the previous M4 models had rows of chairs in a 2-1 formation perpendicular to the walls, which created a series of handrails in short succession, these new trains have seats running parallel to the walls, with a few vertical handrails spaced in wider gaps, and then, a horizontal top bar running through the train. The problem is, the carriage is 3.7 metres tall and the bar is placed so high that only tall people can reach it. During rush hour, a crowded train is a safety hazard for shorter people, because we have nowhere to hold on to. There are still several M4 trains running and you still see people holding on to the bars there for dear life; in the M5 trains, only a few tall men hold on to them. So, I’ve seen Indian men falling on top of their children, and small Filipino women flailing their arms to reach a bar that just isn’t there. But make no mistake: this was a bespoke choice. The M5 is also used in places such as Singapore, where the model was customised to adapt to different heights, and ironically, even in my native city, Santo Domingo, where a similar height adaptation was requested. So this tall measure was chosen by the local authorities.
