Moving through
Ramp
building entranceschoolhospitalpublic spacehousing
An inclined surface that connects two levels without steps.
What it solves
It allows a person in a wheelchair, with a walker, with a stroller or with a load to change level on their own. Outdoors it must drain rainwater and not become slippery.
Today
Design gentle, constant slopes, level landings at the start, at the end and at each turn, handrails on both sides and an edge that keeps the wheel from slipping off. The floor must be slip-resistant and drain well.
Common mistake
Making a ramp so steep that it can only be used with another person’s help.
Tomorrow
A well-designed ramp serves an older person, a stroller, a hand truck and a wheeled delivery robot equally. That is why it is best thought of as the main entrance and not as a side entrance.
Fact The United States accessibility standard sets a maximum slope of 1 in 12, about 8.3%. Each run should not rise more than 76 centimeters between landings.
Where it comes from
- 1Ancient Egypt Egypt, Antiquity
Inclined planes were used to raise the blocks of the pyramids. - 2Ancient Greece Isthmus of Corinth, Greece, Antiquity
The diolkos, a paved ramp about 6 kilometers long, was used to drag ships over land. - 3Greek healing sanctuaries Epidaurus, Greece, Antiquity
Eleven stone ramps in nine buildings of the sanctuary of Asclepius suggest that visitors with reduced mobility were considered.
Masters
- Le Corbusier Villa Savoye, Poissy, France, 1931
He runs a gentle ramp from the entrance to the upper floor and then to the roof terrace. He calls it an architectural promenade because the views unfold as one walks. - João Batista Vilanova Artigas Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, 1969
He organizes the building with a main ramp that rises through a large central hall designed for meeting. He teaches that a ramp connects the floors without cutting through the common space.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Moving through
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.