The project aims to provide a safe and pleasant environment for pairing guide
dogs with the visually impaired. By providing contrasting sensory cues with
sound, light and gravity users can orient themselves throughout the building.
The areas for guide dogs and humans are separated in order to celebrate
the moment the two meet in the building. The building itself comes from the
landscape, meets the street, turns at this meeting point between people and
dogs and continues across to frame a view into the park. This threshold invites
passerby into the building and park, giving the public a view into the building
program. The landscape path and pavilions flow from the building and into
the park creating obstacles for the visually impaired as well as moments of
heightened senses the public can experience, giving them a sense of what the
visually impaired rely on everyday.
Hydro-phonic (water acoustic) wayfinding throughout the building uses the
sound generated from moving water to create various frequencies, unique
for different spaces. Upon arrival visitors will hear waterfall as white noise, to
mask the sounds of the busy street from the entrance and the park below. Pink
noise, a frequency similar to rainfall, can be heard on the upper floor where
the visually impaired trainees live for a few weeks during the pairing process.
The rainfall within the railings of the corridor guide the visually impaired to
their rooms and helps them relax in an unfamiliar environment. Descending
the ramp railing, the water flows and splashes the floor signaling each change
in level. Brown noise, a frequency ideal for focusing and similar to a stream,
flows through the training space, along the dog housing and returns to the
park
