Step Nazis
Penny Richards, blog diva at Temple U's Disability Studies Blog, alerted us to Natalie Bennett's Philobiblion blog entry on the benefits of stairs. That's right, stairs. How good it is to have them.
Lifts are unneccessary, she says (by "lifts" she means "elevators"; she's British). Oh, except in hospitals.
But architects insist on making them easy for folks to use -- elevators, that is. People shouldn't use elevators, says Bennett; they should climb stairs.
"Architects just don't get it," she laments.
Well, right -- only as all of us know, architects "don't get it" about removing stairs. Bennett doesn't get it either, it seems.
Richards discovers that more folks than Bennett sing the praises of stairs -- for our "fitness," you know. Read Richards' entry here: Disability Studies, Temple U.: Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the office tower...
While you're noodling around with this, go to Bennett's blog, will ya, and post a comment?
Hi Mary,
Thanks for 'amplification.' I don't agree with Nathalie Bennet's point about making stairs visible in hospitals, since the primary purpose of this division is to separate the more public processions of the patient from the back ward movements of the doctors, nurses and assistants. Nothing wrong with an attractive flight of stairs - except when architects try to push it as a solution to our bulging waistlines; and when they offered instead of an attractive ramp!
Posted by: Mike Dorn | March 18, 2006 08:21 PM