ABSTRACT
For disabled people in particular, the built environment is often encountered as a series of hostile, exclusive and oppressive spaces. Examples abound of discriminatory architectural design, including steps into shops and public buildings, inaccessible transport, and the absence of colour coding and induction loops. Ableist bodily conceptions underpin architectural discourses and practices, and there is evidence to suggest that the specific mobility and/or access needs of disabled people rarely feature in the theories and practices of designers or architects. This chapter provides a brief discussion of architectural modernism and the emergence of what some have referred to as disembodied architecture. It relates such ideas to a consideration of the architectural theories and practices of one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century, Le Corbusier. The chapter concludes by discussing the possibilities for the development of non-ableist, embodied, architectural discourses and practices.
