Project Instructor: Theodore Kofman; Students: Charlie Blanchard, Chris Taleff, Thomas Heyer, and Ratan Rai Sur; Alumni team: Emilie Gossiaux and WaI-Jee Ho; The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, The Cooper Union (New York, New York, USA, founded 1859), with support from the New York City Department of Design and Construction

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See more objects with the tag texture, blind, communication system, paving, pedestrian.

Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

-0001

2018

2025

  • You found it!

1303, Tactile City, 2015–18

Its medium is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljamnwgzd54&.

A video, two visual diagrams, and a tactile map and key present Tactile City, a proposal for a citywide tactile communication system. The system would use paving with different textures to indicate points of interest, such as a bus stop, a garbage can, a sign, or an entrance to a building. Tactile City also includes a solution for guiding pedestrians through construction sites. Tactile City is conceived as a standard system that could be learned. Tactile City was designed by Theodore Kofman and a team of students and alumni at The Cooper Union.

Project Instructor: Theodore Kofman; Students: Charlie Blanchard, Chris Taleff, Thomas Heyer, and Ratan Rai Sur; Alumni team: Emilie Gossiaux and WaI-Jee Ho; The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, The Cooper Union (New York, New York, USA, founded 1859), with support from the New York City Department of Design and Construction

  • Video, 2:05 minutes

  • Streetscape Diagrams

    Urban construction sites generate pedestrian detours throughout New York City. A combination of braille graphics, ramped platforms, and motion-activated sound devices would signal the presence of short-term and long-term construction barriers, guiding pedestrians with information about the shape and duration of detours.

  • Tactile Map

    Tactile graphics by Touch Graphics

  • Drawing, City System
  • pen and ink, graphite on white paper.
  • Gift of Alexandra and Paul Herzan.
  • 2017-27-3
  •

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This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Senses: Design Beyond Vision.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/1159162485/ |title=1303, Tactile City, 2015–18 |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=11 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>