Chris Downey: The architect who lost his sight

Chris Downey is a blind man working in a visual field, said Douglas McGray in The Atlantic. Two years ago, Downey, 47, was a prosperous architect when doctors discovered a tumor wrapped around his optic nerve, and rushed him into surgery. “Five days later,” says Downey. “It all went black.” Nonetheless, Downey returned to his job, determined to become what he calls a “rather preposterous” contradiction in terms—a blind architect. “As architects, we’re visual animals,” says Downey. “The interesting riddle for me, then, is: If you take sight out of the equation, what makes for good architecture?”

He found that blindness gave him a unique perspective on the organization of interior spaces, and began working on ways to improve a building’s flow—everything from wall placement to where to put seating. “It requires a lot more mental gymnastics to build that model in your head that you would otherwise just see in a flash.” He’s now able to read plans with the help of a printer that prints them in a sort of Braille, and has software that reads computer text out loud. “There’s still plenty to work with,” he says. “I think it leads to a fairly acute mind, being able to juggle information stored in your brain.”

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