Report of the
Fourth International Expert Seminar on
Building Non-Handicapping Environments:
Access Legislation and Design Solutions
Budapest, Hungary, September 2-4, 1991
Download the Budapest
proceedings as a PDF file (480 KB)
Organized by
CIB, the International Council for Building Research, Studies and Documentation,
Working Commission W84 in cooperation with the Royal Institute of Technology,
Department of Building Function Analysis, Stockholm and the National Federation
of Associations of Disabled Persons (MEOSZ), Budapest, Hungary
sponsored by
the Swedish National Council for Building Research, Stockholm, Sweden
Report edited by Adolf D. Ratzka, Ph. D.
Table of contents
Part IPresentation of the organizers
Opening addresses. Prof. Dr. Gy Sebestyén, Secretary General,
CIB, International Council for Building Research Studies and Documentation. Dr. Pál Gadó, Host Organizer, MEOSZ,
Budapest, Hungary
CIB is the abbreviation of the French title of the
International Council for Building Research, Studies and Documentation.
CIB's purpose is to facilitate and develop international cooperation in
building, housing and planning research, studies and documentation, covering
not only the technical but also the economic and social aspects of building
and the related environment. CIB, with its over 100 Working Commissions,
works through congresses, symposia and colloquia. Working Commission W84
"Building Non-Handicapping Environments" was founded in 1984.
The Hungarian National Federation of Disabled Persons' Associations, MEOSZ,
was established by persons with physical disabilities in 1981 as a central
federation of their associations which had their origins in the mid-seventies.
There are a total of 48 member associations with 29,000 individual members.
The Federation consists of associations founded along diagnostic lines,
such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatism, and of special interest organizations,
such as the Hungarian Sport Federation of Disabled Persons and the Section
for Young People. MEOSZ' aim is to represent and protect the interests of
its member organizations and all Hungarian persons with physical disabilities.
MEOSZ conducts its work in a range of working groups each focussing on topics
such as vocational rehabilitation, education, culture, transportation, legal
services, etc. The most important bodies within the Federation are the Board
of Presidents and the Council of Leaders which consists of the chairpersons
of the member organizations.
The Department of Building Function Analysis, Department of Architecture,
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm studies the relationship between
man, built environment and society. The original focus has shifted from
the definition of spatial and other basic functional user requirements to
more complex aspects of the use of buildings and urban environments including
decision processes in planning, building and management as well as housing
in developing countries. The aim is to provide data and arguments to enable
environmental designers and users to advocate users' interests in the planning
process and to widen the public debate in cultural, economic and political
terms.
CIB W84 Secretariat (until 1994):
Coordinator, Professor Sven Thiberg
Associate Coordinator, Adolf D. Ratzka, Ph. D.
Administrative Assistant, Kristopher Walmsley
Address:
Dept. of Building Function Analysis
The Royal Institute of Technology
100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Opening address
Prof. Dr. Gy. Sebestyén
Secretary General, CIB,
International Council for Building Research Studies and Documentation
The agreeable task frequently falls to me, as Secretary
General of CIB, to welcome on CIB's behalf participants at such conferences.
This pleasant obligation is tempered by the fact that so often it means
that I am unable to attend the Conference in person. Such is the case with
this seminar. I would have wished very much to be present, and it is a matter
of utmost regret that this has not been possible.
Naturally, I would have enjoyed being here in a city where I have spent
most of my career but the main reason is less personal; you are participating
now in a Workshop relevant to construction for housing, for the environment,
and for society. Building non-handicapping environments is an expression
which includes a negation only to express its positive ambitions even more
strongly - to build in order to enable all people to work, live and move
around freely - in short, for all of us adequate housing in an adequate
built environment.
Therefore please accept the wholehearted gratitude and good wishes from
the CIB Community and from all of us.
Opening address
Dr. Pál Gadó
Host Organizer, MEOSZ, Budapest, Hungary
Honored participants of the Accessibility Legislation
Symposium, I welcome you on behalf of the National Federation of the Associations
of Persons with Disabilities. In past two years we worked together with
CIB to prepare this event. We do hope that the topic of the symposium will
be analyzed in depth from different aspects and the working group will provide
a useful summary of all statements made here.
We Hungarians would like to learn a lot from the lectures and discussions
included in the program, as well as from the informal talks we will be able
to have with you during the days of the meeting. Most of you are coming
from well-established parliamentary democracies where legislation has an
important role in civil life. We, and similarly our neighbors, had been
living for 40 years in totalitarian political systems where laws and rules,
no matter whether good or bad ones, were dictated and average citizens or
their associations were neither allowed to initiate nor to comment on these.
Now, these possibilities are open even for us. Hungary has become an independent,
free nation with all kinds of democratic civil rights. However, we do not
have experience in making use of these rights. We will carefully listen
to your reports about the due contents of such regulations and about the
ways through which you achieved accessibility legislation in favour of disabled
persons population. We are glad to have this meeting in our country right
now when we can start advocacy for a correct legislation and for the enforcement
of the existing one.
In this sense I wish you very rewarding sessions and also I hope you will
enjoy your free time in Budapest. The immediate surroundings of the symposium
venue, the Buda Castle district, might be of special interest to architects
or those who care for history because this had been the capital of Hungary
since the beginning of the 16th century. Unfortunately, many wars passed
through this region and much was destroyed. Still, if you wish, you can
get a fairly good introduction to our history in this quarter by old stones
and a good guide. I hope you find everything you came for.
Presentation of the organizers