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Aug. 22nd, 2025 04:04 pmI've been yoinking a lot of really cool background/living quarters/gardens type of reference pictures from chinese-speaking spaces, and it's highlighting an interesting conundrum that i honestly don't really know how to feel about (there's no easy answer to it).
on one hand, these are gorgeous, lived in traditional spaces with immense, antiquated character that's a feast for the eyes as well as real history, right. cool tea-houses, shrines, gardens, etc.
but they are inaccessible as hell lmao.
like i see a dude walking over a bridge that's a bunch of vertical tiny stepping stones and go 'ayep that's not ADA compliant... this stairway ain't either.... how the fuck is an elderly person supposed to get to this multilevel platform too, much less me... wait was that a rope ladder.. lol...'
(it's a common problem with "old" European cities too so it's not an east/west thing by any means; i've long since resigned myself to basically sticking to US/modern cities. arguably it's *the* reason i don't travel much because it'd be too much of an ordeal. yes yes yes i know there's services that exist blah blah, do you know how much still doesn't fuckin work in practicality and is there purely for 'check the box for compliance' reasons. yeah. just trust me on this one.)
and i'm not complaining here for the sake of bitching, the interesting conundrum here is just the fact that yeah - there is going to always bee an either/or division with 'gorgeous historical architecture' and 'is it easy to get to'. visually speaking, multi-level platforms is a great way to break up a space, but there's the inevitable steps, you know? and you can only make so many ramps.
so it's very interesting to also rotate this thought while designing/drawing fictional spaces, especially older historical ones -- how to make it plausibly accessible while remaining dynamic. (my dad and i talk about this all the time with him being an architect and knowing full well that struggle of 'how to make a functional space pleasing'. ngl it actually is fun listening to him complain about regulations since there's so many to learn about lol, much less shit like 'don't put a doctor's walk-in entrance next to the patient entrance because doctors are arrogant bastards who don't want to mingle with the plebeians (true story)).
on one hand, these are gorgeous, lived in traditional spaces with immense, antiquated character that's a feast for the eyes as well as real history, right. cool tea-houses, shrines, gardens, etc.
but they are inaccessible as hell lmao.
like i see a dude walking over a bridge that's a bunch of vertical tiny stepping stones and go 'ayep that's not ADA compliant... this stairway ain't either.... how the fuck is an elderly person supposed to get to this multilevel platform too, much less me... wait was that a rope ladder.. lol...'
(it's a common problem with "old" European cities too so it's not an east/west thing by any means; i've long since resigned myself to basically sticking to US/modern cities. arguably it's *the* reason i don't travel much because it'd be too much of an ordeal. yes yes yes i know there's services that exist blah blah, do you know how much still doesn't fuckin work in practicality and is there purely for 'check the box for compliance' reasons. yeah. just trust me on this one.)
and i'm not complaining here for the sake of bitching, the interesting conundrum here is just the fact that yeah - there is going to always bee an either/or division with 'gorgeous historical architecture' and 'is it easy to get to'. visually speaking, multi-level platforms is a great way to break up a space, but there's the inevitable steps, you know? and you can only make so many ramps.
so it's very interesting to also rotate this thought while designing/drawing fictional spaces, especially older historical ones -- how to make it plausibly accessible while remaining dynamic. (my dad and i talk about this all the time with him being an architect and knowing full well that struggle of 'how to make a functional space pleasing'. ngl it actually is fun listening to him complain about regulations since there's so many to learn about lol, much less shit like 'don't put a doctor's walk-in entrance next to the patient entrance because doctors are arrogant bastards who don't want to mingle with the plebeians (true story)).
