SenseAbility is a long-term initiative designed to create a socio-cultural platform that brings together able-bodied individuals and those with visual disabilities. Launched during the Bucharest Architecture Annual with support from the Romanian Order of Architects, the project seeks to identify spaces with rich sensory experiences and amplify these characteristics to enhance accessibility and generate an inclusive context of interaction.

Our activities to date include blind-guided tours in iconic/historical buildings/spaces, fostering shared experiences between diverse groups, using models to develop mental mapping skills, and creating inclusive, tactile maps to make spaces more accessible. The goal is to make accessibility a normalized aspect of daily life. For able-bodied participants, these exercises foster empathy, while for those with visual impairments, they offer an inclusive context for interaction and a tactile museum experience. Additionally, the initiative serves as a valuable research and development opportunity for design professionals in today’s visually saturated environment, providing a complex sensory experience of space and a platform for co-creating solutions with users and gathering feedback.

The exhibitions/editions that took place so far are:

• Bucharest Architecture Annual, 2015: guided tours and model building activities in three historically significant buildings in Bucharest, each with distinct architectural identities: Ion Mincu House, Monteoru House, and Rosetti Villa.
• Technical College of Architecture “I.N. Socolescu,” Bucharest, 2016: guided tours and discussions focused on the accessibility of spaces familiar to students preparing for architecture school admission exams.
• Night of Museums, Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urban Planning, 2016: a guided blind tour and a tactile art exhibition highlighting student-created objects in the Study of Form course. It was the only event accessible for blind people at that edition of the Museums’ Night.
• A Sound Journey – Romanian Athenaeum, 2016: a sound installation by Andrei Nechifor aimed at translating spatial characteristics through sound, accompanied by a guided tour and a classical music concert to explore the acoustics and the relationship between sound and space in the Romanian Athenaeum.
• Street Delivery, 2016: Guided tours of Casa Ion Mincu and Arthur Verona Street, activated by a public event.
• Exhibition: Normality, What a Brutal Word!, MNAC, 2016: Guided tours as part of the exhibition produced by Active Watch and Cristian Neagoe.
• Special Edition with Journalists at Casa Ion Mincu, 2017: provided journalists with the opportunity to experience some of the obstacles faced by visually impaired individuals, aiming to promote the importance of accessibility in the built environment through the media.
• Finissage of Clara Duran’s Exhibition, Hacia el Mar, 2017: enhanced the auditory experience of Clara Duran’s selected poems and photographs through SenseAbility activities.
• BETA, The Architectural Biennale of Timișoara, 2021:  we led the SenseAbility empathy workshop, focusing on social responsibility in architecture and fostering dialogue between architects and vulnerable groups to create more inclusive built environments.