Visible and Invisible Technologies for the inclusion of vulnerable users and the enhancement of minor architectural heritage

The vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities and the elderly, represent an increasingly significant part of the society. These subject’s needs have to be set within a broader inclusiveness design strategy based on autonomy, independence, life-quality and life expectations. Currently, Italy is below the European average in terms of life expectancy in good health and without restriction, especially for women. In a complex and confused scenario, the redevelopment of the building heritage, enhancing the existing through the recovery in terms of architectural and urban quality, will be one of the main goals of environmental and social sustainability. The paper shows the first results of a research started at the Department of Architecture of Roma Tre University that aims at the application of "hard" and "soft" technologies for inclusive and adaptive housing. The research focus in the design strategies on the architectural heritage for fragile users, with reference to the most innovative technological tools to improve the quality of the spaces and promote the user autonomy. The "hard" technology tools groups together the project strategies and the constructive actions aimed at making physically suitable the existing buildings for fragile users; the "soft" technology contains all the most advanced tools based on innovative media (BIM, GIS, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, etc.): these lead to architecture applied solutions, both able to respect the built environment and to provide an inclusive and enriched experiential fruition. The paper analyses the state of art of these technologies, presenting existing tools and strategies. Moreover, the first results will include some experimental augmented reality application for the enhancement of minor architectural heritage, concerning wayfinding and inclusive fruition of multimedia contents.