Celebrating Excellence: Kat Downie Awarded Hassell Prize for Independent Design in Architecture

Celebrating Excellence: Kat Downie Awarded Hassell Prize for Independent Design in Architecture

We’re proud to share that Kat Downie, Graduate of Architecture at EIW, was joint recipient for the Hassell Prize for Independent Design in Architecture for her powerful and thought-provoking thesis ‘Accessible Commonplace / Commonplace Accessibility’, supervised by Dr Beth George.

Kat Downie, Graduate of Architecture at EIW Architects

This prize is awarded to the top Independent Design project in the Master of Architecture, recognizing exceptional design thinking, research, and rigor. Kat’s work stands out not only for its academic strength, but for its real-world relevance and potential to shift how we approach accessibility in architectural practice.

Above is the diagrammatic process which explores the concepts and symbolism of the Modulor Man and Vitruvian Man, systematically disabling their ideals to propose “The Common Body” –  a representation of diverse physical forms and abilities that together reflect embodied human variation. Her thesis challenges the profession to move beyond minimum standards and instead embrace accessibility as a fundamental design value—benefiting all users, not just those with disabilities. It reframes disability as an inevitable and valuable aspect of the human condition, asking architects to reflect this diversity in the way we shape space.

In her own words, Kat shares:

“It is commonly accepted in the architectural discipline that designing for people with higher needs is both an ethical imperative and a means of promoting social inclusion. This is a principle of design which ensures that built environments serve all members of society, recognizing that accessibility enhances experiences for everyone, not just those with disabilities.

Image: Diagrams illustrating inclusive design principles and embodiment in architecture

This positively enriches our collective embodied experience of spaces—the physical and sensory zone where we interact with our environment. At its core, embodiment emphasizes the role of design in evoking experiences through both the tangible and intangible. This means a deeper connection between cognition, the body and the built environment, shaping how we interact with architectural elements and influencing the affordance that it gives us in our daily experiences and well-being.

However, the architectural discipline remains predominantly focused on able-bodied archetypes and often perpetuates a mind-body divide, overlooking embodied experiences and marginalizing the engagement of individuals with diverse physical abilities. Thus, by reframing disability as a fluid and inevitable part of the multitudes of human experience—something we all encounter directly or indirectly—it becomes evident that integrating diverse embodied perspectives in architectural practice is essential.

By applying theories of accessibility to the principles of embodied architectural design, and learning from other ethically engaged design approaches, this thesis proposes that architecture can be transformed to better reflect and accommodate the multifaceted physical experiences of all individuals. This thesis then aims to explore how this approach can be made commonplace in practice and education to create authentic universal design. By doing so, it seeks to inspire a more inclusive and thoughtfully designed built environment that embraces the full spectrum of human diversity.”

Kat’s achievement is a milestone not only for her career, but for the conversation around inclusive design. Her research encourages us all—as architects, designers, educators and clients—to reflect on who we’re designing for and how we can do better.

Congratulations, Kat, on this well-deserved recognition. We look forward to seeing how your ideas will continue to shape inclusive design practice into the future.