Guidelines for inclusive public space design

Within the framework of the new ‘PUG’ (Piano Urbanistico Generale), the ‘Urban general plan’, for the Union of Municipalities ‘Terre di Pianura’ in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, that adopt a sensitive and peculiar approach to territorial and social fragilities, it has been developed a new operative tool for the design of public spaces that has inclusivity as its main goal. The ‘Guidelines for inclusivity in public spaces’ is meant to contribute, integrated with other planning instruments, to the improvement the ‘SQUEA’ (Strategia per la Qualificazione Edilizia ed Ambientale) ‘Strategy for Urban and Environmental Qualification’ that will address the quality of urban public spaces in the next decades.

The ‘Guidelines’ is designed to be an operative instrument for the design phase, dedicated both to urban designers and public administration technicians to improve the usability of public spaces of people with different needs and ambitions.

To designer, the ‘Guidelines’ offers an applicative set of tools to improve the sensibility towards the different needs of people with different physical abilities, cultural backgrounds, gender identities, to the public administration technicians, instead, it offers a framework for the evaluation of the level of inclusiveness.

 

The ‘Guidelines’ is composed of 3 tools:

• 1 – A facsimile of a questionnaire in 2 parts: one addressed to urban designers to better understand the physical context and the target of potential users; one addressed to potential new users to help to collect their needs and expectations;
• 2 – A summary of design prompts to provide a higher level of inclusivity organized by type of sensibility (Physical, Social, Cultural, Inter-age) and type of design elements (Accesses, Paths, Communication, Service facilities, Lights, Surfaces, Green spaces, Activities, Co-design steps);
• 3 – A collection of intersectional design examples;

 

1 – The facsimile of a questionnaire provides a framework of queries addressed both to the designer and to the potential user. The first part is dedicated to designer and it aims to help to build a survey on the potential target(s) of the new public space (age, fragility condition, religion, gender, frequency and terms of use) and on the physical actual condition of the place. The second half of the survey framework is dedicated to the potential users, and has to be dispensed to the target previously identified to help to collect its actual conditions and perception of the space to be transformed into public. By the confrontation of the two halves of the survey, designer can have a better and deeper understanding of potential user condition, needs and ambitions.

2- The second tool is a collection of design prompts, organized here through a synoptic table with a double order of reading. Horizontally the table shows the four main category of inclusivity (physical, social, cultural and intergenerational) and their subdimensions (mobility, cognitive, perceptive, community based, religious, linguistic, gender based, alders, adolescents, children). Vertically it shows firstly Italian main design mandatory regulation, where existing. Secondly it has been set up a ‘level 0’ condition, there no peculiar prompts are suggested, but is observed a general non conflictual or discriminatory spatial approach. Then design prompts are organized by 7 typologies of spaces (access, pathways, wayfinding, auxiliary facilities, lighting, surfaces, green areas) plus activities and co-design. For each vertical column and subcategory of inclusivity are so provided specific design prompts.

3 – The last tool of the guidelines is a series of design examples that show how to combine together the previously prompts into a coherent and efficient spatial layout able to improve the inclusivity of new public spaces. The design examples are three-dimensional fictional drawings that wants to help designers to prevent from possible conflicts between different inclusive prompts. Another aim of the collection of examples is to visualize to recipient, not a final concrete solution, that are due to designers according with other technical and aesthetical elements, but as sample of potential integration and coherence to develop an inclusivity-oriented approach.