Does Pure Contemplation Belong to Architecture? The Denied Ramps at the Church of San Salvatore in the Santa Giulia Museum in Brescia.

This paper addresses the issue of balancing the two values underlying the accessibility and conservation of cultural heritage: its use and its protection. These values are often, wrongly, regarded as opposites, or as incompatible. The reason for this contrast originates in the way of understanding ancient architecture and in the value of the relationship between architecture and people. This issue is considered by presenting a recent case concerning the Museum of Santa Giulia in Brescia, a multi-layered complex that preserves evidence ranging from the prehistoric to the contemporary age, housed in a monastic complex of Longobard origin. The recent failure to build some ramps proposed for increasing accessibility to the church of San Salvatore, an integral part of the museum's itinerary, offers an opportunity to reflect on the need for better integration between different, and only apparently opposed, instances. The topic is dealt with by referring to the most recent disciplinary reflections in the field of conservation carried out in Italy with respect to the issue of accessibility to the cultural heritage, without neglecting juridical-normative aspects and international documents, such as the Faro Convention. This multidisciplinary reading aims to highlight the main significance of accessing cultural heritage, with reference also to the objectives of sustainable development and the human development of the individual and the reference community.

Accessibility and Universal Design: Do They Provide Economic Benefits?

Certainly, the issue of accessibility has, in addition to a well-known social value, obvious economic repercussions. However, these are not easily measurable, as they can be investigated only on the basis of indicators that are mainly qualitative and indirect. That said, this paper will highlight some aspects that can be considered a first approach, identifying the variables and key players in the economic field. The approach, according to the principles of Universal Design, already identifies economic implications related to the design of spaces, objects, and services. The socio-economic relevance has also been underlined within Sen's economic theories based on the capability approach and is generally referable to the theme of corporate social responsibility. In recent years, all this has been finding a universalistic synthesis in the enunciation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The analysis is conducted according to an interdisciplinary qualitative approach from two main perspectives: the company and the public administration. The study highlights how accessibility-understood according to a broad meaning that considers material and immaterial factors-assumes significant economic value with different specificities, depending on the reference actor (company/public administration). In particular, it is evident that for the company, the issue of accessibility (both with regard to products and services and organizational profiles) is taking on an increasingly important dimension with reference to marketing and ratings. The present work defines with clear evidence the main areas in which the economic value of accessibility appears, although a more in-depth study is needed to define metrics useful for quantifying the phenomenon. The study can be useful in various public and private sectors that involve policy-makers, designers, managers, and companies that produce goods and services.

Is My University Inclusive? Towards a Multi-Domain Instrument for Sustainable Environments in Higher Education.

We present a pilot study on three Italian Universities using a multi-domain set of indicators for Inclusion. The indicators are expressed in the coding system of the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health - ICF - (World Health Organization, 2001). We selected three medium-sized Italian Universities: Brescia, Trieste and Venice. We combined a student-centered Universal Design philosophy for the built environment and Universal Design for Learning for the instructional environment. We identified four ICF Environmental Chapters (E1, E3, E4 and E5) and made them specific to the Academic context. Within the four Environmental Chapters targeting the physical, instructional, cultural, communicative, social and recreational domains we developed a 35-item checklist to fill out. The indicators were qualitative, quantitative or a mixture of the two. The three Universities shared the same instruments. Our main finding is that, although accommodations for students with disabilities exist as mandated by Italian law, the prevailing implementation is an individual accommodation based approach, rather than a universal design approach for the benefit to the greatest extent of the student population.

Implementing Universal Design and the ICF in Higher Education: Towards a Model That Achieves Quality Higher Education for All.

The landmark UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the first time explicitly makes reference to the inclusion of the needs and capacities of all persons, on equal grounds, in the planning of our built environment and services (Goal 11) and in our quality educational systems (Goal 4). Accessibility and inclusion of all people in vulnerable situations, including people with disabilities, provides a strong benchmark for sustainability. Accessibility and Inclusion in higher education are the topic of an increasing number of studies, however, there is no existing common set of multidomain indicators for Inclusion available to the multiple stakeholders involved in higher education. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap. With a Universal Design approach and the common language of the ICF we aim to provide a multi-dimensional assessment and planning tool to quantitatively and qualitatively measure Inclusion of environments and services in Higher Education.

On the Relationship Between 'Universal' and 'Particular' in Architecture.

In 1998 Molly Follette Story, James Mueller and Roland Mace published the book The Universal Design File; that can be considered the result of a long way, started by Mace in 1985, towards a design approach based on the principles of Universal Design. In 2010 the Centre for Active Design publishes the Active Design Guidelines: Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design. Between these two milestones, this article offers some ideas about the evolution of the universal approach to design. Assuming that Universal Design approach can present limits, this article aims to reflect on the relationship between universal and particular in developing a theoretical approach to architecture and design, supporting the idea that the wide gray area of the population who need specific access solutions can find answers to their needs only through successive adjustments, time by time plugged on universal solutions. This implies a process of requirement-based retrofitting of existing spaces and goods, to get qualities or perfecting performances otherwise inadequate. From this perspective the project for accessibility should be seen as a never ending process, and not a fix and final product, and Universal Design should be considered as a methodological approach ideally tending towards accessibility as a goal. Having this in mind, the article explores the issues related to how to blend universal and particular in a human centred design strategy, how to combine design actions and awareness by the users to allow an effective mutual adaptation between people and their living environment. The article aims to be further food for thought regarding research to be implemented in future works.