This article addresses the topic of environmental comfort from a salutogenic and pedagogical point of view. It begins by presenting a wide framework aimed at describing the complexity and specificity of the acoustic issue and the need to integrate decibel-based metrics with knowledge and reflections which are inherent to non-measurable factors. The article then focuses its attention on educational spaces and presents the results of an investigation carried out in 52 classrooms of 19 primary schools in Florence. From this research and keeping in mind the current Italian legislation, the following results are deduced: (1) the layout of a typical classroom, (2) the average reverberation time and (3) the sound-absorbing surface required to improve the acoustic quality of the typical classroom with polystyrene fibre panels. Subsequently, after having briefly described the more appropriate typology of sound-absorbing solutions, a system for the acoustic correction of classrooms is presented. This system is composed of two parts. The first part is fixed and its realisation is entrusted to specialised personnel; the second, based on the concept of personalisation and transformation of the educational space, is modifiable through time and designed and applied by the students themselves.
An increase in the number of partially sighted people is one of the effects of population ageing. These people have great difficulties in gathering wayfinding information to move independently in an unfamiliar environment. Guide paths based on the luminance contrast between a strip and surrounding surfaces can be an effective device for mitigating these difficulties, but information provided by the scientific literature on guide paths cannot be usefully applied to the naturally coloured paving materials most commonly found in pedestrian urban spaces. This paper presents a simplified method for measuring the luminance contrast between a guide strip and its background using combinations of naturally coloured paving materials.
This book is the result of a research project designed and carried out at the Department of Architecture, University of Florence. This book discusses urban public spaces and, more specifically, run-down, inactive micro-spaces that are barely used due to their location, dimensions, morphology or semantic characteristics. In literature, these spaces are often defined as “residual urban spaces.” A large abandoned industrial area on the outskirts of a town or a small interstitial space in a historical centre can be residual. With respect to such a broad subject matter, the book seeks to radically limit the field, concentrating on public residual spaces found in the oldest parts of cities. The book reflects on this theme and introduces a method for reading and assessment of the residuality of public spaces in historical contexts (Residuality Assessment Process) which was tested in the historical centre of Florence. It is the authors’ view that residual spaces, above all if designed according to a system logic, can go from being problems to potential activators of urban and social regeneration processes, offering a useful contribution to improve city life.
Italy is the country with the highest number of sites recognised as World Heritage by UNESCO and one of the nations with the highest density of sites of cultural interest both in Europe and in the world. Unfortunately, only a small part of these are completely and easily accessible, and certain of the most fragile sections of society, for example disabled persons, are in fact excluded from the possibility of visiting and discovering the said places. The research presented here represents an “experiment” in the application of the methodology of the Accessibility Plan to the monumental complex of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, in other words the attempt to increase the degree of accessibility of the complex through a medium and long-term innovative strategic planning tool that takes into consideration not only material aspects (physical and sensory accessibility) but also aspects of an intangible nature, thus making it possible for people to fully understand the cultural meanings of the places, and focusing on the “experiential dimension of the visit” [1].
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