Regulation of the non-handicapping environment in Hungary
Tibor Polinszky, POLI-Studio Ltd., Hungary
Introduction
Architecture is a creative activity to meet the requirements of man and
society. Construction is successful or not successful to the extent that
the built environment is able to meet all human needs. In designing the
environment, average social requirements have become manifested, thus the
quality of the built environment has been raised or decreased to an average
level. The consequences are buildings constructed to the requirements of
the "average man" who is 30 - 50 years old, 160 - 180 cm in height,
and weighs 50 - 80 kg., does medium standard physical and mental work and
meets standard principles and performance requirements.
In the future we have to develop our environment more carefully and consider
special needs and the abilities of people who are disabled.
Previous designs by architects in Hungary have created daily problems for
2 - 2.5 million people of the country's population of 10.5 million. Included
are 300-500 thousand physically disabled persons; children below the age
of 12; persons over the age of 55-60, as well as those-who cannot fully
utilize their environment due to illness, accident or temporary disability.
Goals of the Hungarian architects
What be should be the task of architects to meet the needs and requirements
of disabled people? The objective is to provide disabled people with the
possibility of participation, contribution, potential progress, and successful
implementation. They should be given the possibility and not compensation!
In this respect the task of architects is similar to the experts of medical
rehabilitation or social workers who work to help people with disabilities
to become able to utilize their capabilities to the maximum possible extent.
Designing barrier-free buildings requires the adaptation of the existing
environment so that:
all locations within buildings, the premises and furnishings should
be accessible
it should be possible to enter the building, the premises in the usual
way
it should be possible to use the building, its premises, internal
areas, furnishings and facilities.
Additionally, we Hungarian architects expect the environment (buildings
and their parts) to accommodate physically disabled people for the function
or task which the building/facilities were designed and meant to be used.
"Utility" of the environment in this sense means, that five tasks
are to be met:
Reachability
Availability
Usability
Recognizability
Safety
Existing legislation of non-handicapping environment in Hungary
The following regulations are meant to provide for the above non-handicapped
environment in Hungary:
National Building Regulation (OÉSZ) (provides for overall regulations)
The Decree by the Minister of Interior on Fire Prevention, together
with related special standards (fire prevention specification, issues related
to escape from fire)
The standards of public information symbols, regulating the symbol
of wheelchair user as physically disabled, elderly people, and mother with
child.
Investors, designers and the interested parties have much information at
their disposal on non-handicapping environments, but such information can
be had only on special request, and the specifications are not mandatory.
Thus, in Hungary, the regulations related to non-handicapping environments
cannot be regarded as being complete.
In the field of barrier-free environments, relations with researchers outside
of Hungary have existed since 1981, from the "International Year of
Disabled Persons". Knowing the works and results of research institutes,
we can say that Hungarian research has, up to 1988, no individual result
in non-handicapping environment and building planning. In the beginning
of the 1980's we elaborated - taking into consideration the standards of
other countries - several directives and planning references, principally
in the field of wheelchair transport and traffic, for assuring place for
wheelchairs. It was on the initiative of the conferences in 1981 for the
IYDP that they started to develop regulations on designing non-handicapping
environments. Prior to that work a number of analyses and comparative studies
had been made, and in 1981 the first Technical Designing Guidelines (MTS
1981/4) were issued under the commission of the Technical Development Department
of Ministry of Construction.
The first actual step in national regulation was the publication of Technical
Instructions "Environmental Requirements of Physically Disabled People"
(MI-156-83) by the Hungarian Office of Standards. Experiences related in
the above works, as well as the studies prepared around 1981, led to the
modification of the National Building Regulation (OÉSZ) in 1986.
Fundamental research work in Hungary
In 1986 a research project began in this field at the Institute for Building
Science with financial assistance from the National Scientific Research
Foundation and the participation of the National Federation of Association
of Physically Disabled People. In the years 1987-89 studies were made of
50 people using wheelchairs and of 24 people testing thermal comfort to
investigate the problems of physically disabled people and comparing the
differences between Hungarian and international standards.
In the beginning, this research work already had the possibility to compare
our results with the recommendations and prescriptions of other countries.
Examining the causes of the divergences, the following points were observed:
In the current economic and social situation of Hungary, the primary
aim is to resolve the provision, education and retraining of the most disabled
persons. This can be realized primarily in the framework of institutes.
The seriously disabled persons can be placed in these institutes.
Starting from the Hungarian production capacities, we have to use
more fixed aids and equipment because the manufacturing of different flexible
solutions is not possible yet owing to the volume of the series.
The greater basis area and equipment are due to the fact that there
is a wide variety of wheelchairs used in Hungary, their dimensions and mechanical
properties differing from those of other countries. Furthermore, the stock
of Hungarian wheelchairs is very heterogeneous, due to the individual needs
and possibilities. With this stock we cannot apply the good solutions of
other countries. We found differences between the measurements of wheelchairs
used in Hungary and wheelchairs produced and used in foreign countries.
These differences existed not only in size but also in the materials and
the weight, their conducting capacity and if they were collapsible.
The Hungarian building industry is not so large that the best and
most suitable materials and construction might always be used.
There is a difference in the basic module for residential buildings:
In Hungary we have a module of 15 cm, in other countries 10 cm are used.
In Hungarian integration and adaptation tasks we were obliged to take into
consideration that our basic standards for apartments are 70-75 sq.m. Since
these apartments are considered to be average size, you can understand the
troubles we have to solve. Previously, the Hungarian conceptions for apartment
projects have been inclined to plan minimal space for hygienic and other
conveniences, assuring a greater useful space for living in the apartment.
But nowadays we have to leave the needs of the so-called "average man"
which requires new views and ideas in our planning work. The design should
be based on the determination of the proper spaces for each function. This
is what we rely upon today when we want to provide apartments according
to demands not only for the elderly and disabled but for everybody. Of course,
these demands are strongly influenced by the financial conditions both with
the state and private home building.
The research project's main aims
Due to the above-mentioned reasons, we elaborated our research. We further
developed and adapted to actual Hungarian circumstances, the methodology
of research of function analysis as used by our friends at the Technical
University of Lund (Sweden).
The first aim of our research was to formulate under Hungarian (or
socialist) circumstances a group of disabled persons who were able to use
the built environment and to describe the characteristics of their activity.
The second aim was for people with disabilities to describe how they
use their environment, to determine their surface needs on the basis of
testing. We wanted to observe basic movements, from which several movements
(i.e., their requirement system) could be synthesized in a later phase.
Thirdly, in evaluation of the test results we wanted to define how
the foreign research results, norms and standards may be adapted to our
circumstances, and what would be the standard solutions in Hungary.
Finally, documentation was made of the investigated cases.
Conclusion
One of the most important parts of the vocational training is to give many
good examples for the using of the built environment. Our aim with the rehabilitation
is to provide a possibility for disabled persons to use and enjoy the objects
surrounding them. We want to achieve this with the help of their active
participation. Our aim with the adaptations of the environment is that,
with minimum alterations, the utilization of buildings and their elements
will be possible for all people. The study was followed by a further study
of 24 apartments in which wheelchair users reside. To utilize the results
of the above studies the POLI-Studio Architectural Research, Designing and
Consulting Ltd. was established in 1990 and later, based on its success,
a foundation called Access Hungary was launched.
