March 26, 2020

SOUR and Open Style Lab Collaborate on Accessible Mannequin Design

Forget Barbie. Ada 1.0 is a radically different clothing form. The life-size gender- and race-neutral mannequin prototype, constructed in a Brooklyn Navy Yard workshop from laser-cut scrap wood down to its joints, adjusts to mimic the posture and movement of arm and leg amputees and those seated in wheelchairs or bent over walkers.

Image courtesy of SOUR.

Intended to encourage retailers to be more inclusive, it is a collaboration between Turkish-American architecture firm SOUR and Open Style Lab, a National Design Award–winning nonprofit seeking to make fashion accessible to people with disabilities. (The connection between the two is SOUR’s managing partner Pinar Guvenc, who serves on Open Style’s board.) With 15 percent of the global population having some form of disability, according to the World Health Organization, Guvenc says that Ada is nothing less than a “call to action for the industry to represent the world’s largest minority group.”

“Disability is a challenge that, like any other, just needs the right solutions,” says Guvenc. Image courtesy of SOUR.

Read next: Cactus-Designed Lab 100 Brings Engaging Interiors to New York’s Mount Sinai

Recent Projects