Wayfinding as a tool for inclusion. The design research for Schuster Park in Rome

This paper presents the results of a research conducted within the Department of Architecture of Roma Tre University aimed at the definition of design strategies for a universal inclusive park. The research provided as case study the Schuster Park in Rome, located close to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. The results of the research are represented by design guidelines useful for the elaboration of the Technical and Economic Feasibility Project. The guidelines are an expression of design strategies such as wayfinding. Wayfinding defines the ability to acquire knowledge of own position, direction, and attainment of the set destination. It represents the full ability of changing direction independently, in a familiar space or not. Wayfinding describes the integrated system between the individual sense of direction and the tools that enable people with different abilities to acquire the information to make this happen. The wayfinding design strategies for the accessibility of Schuster Park have considered the complex relationship between the park and the city: in fact, the park is placed between different polarities of the city district affected by the Basilica of St. Paul, the city's mobility systems, the Bambin Gesù Children’s Hospital, and some buildings of the Roma Tre University. This paper describes how the orientation system was defined by integral strategies based on Human Centred Design that involved, among other things, the realization of four different information totems with the aim of making Parco Schuster an accessible public space for all. The research, conducted in agreement with Fondazione Tetrabondi onlus, the Department of Human Neuroscience of Sapienza University of Rome, the Italian Association of Occupational Therapists, the AES Cultural Association, and the Order of Architects of Rome and its province, was developed through a participative design process that involved multiple stakeholders, including active citizenship of neighbourhood associations.