Turismo accessibile a Mondovì: proposte per il miglioramento dell’accessibilità

Mondovì Piazza, the ancient center of the city of Mondovì (CN), constitutes architectural and cultural heritage of considerable interest, which, despite its considerable potential for tourism development, is undergoing a significant demographic decline. The Italian Network of Accessibility Lab in cooperation, promoted, in 2016, an international workshop regarding ideas to improve the accessibility to services of a morphologically complex area, with the aim of collaborating with the local Municipality in an overall action for tourism enhancement with a focus on accessibility. During the workshop students in architecture and design from the universities participating in the accessibility Lab network, tackled an immersive design experience centered on accessibility issues with an original approach, face to face with the problems, the stakeholders, and a team of experts. The immersive workshop training experience was better than ordinary university courses, and allowed students to understand better the complexity of architecture and urban design and to learn a design approach based on real needs. The paper illustrates the results of the workshop both in terms of design proposals and learning outcomes, suggesting this kind of experience as the most appropriate to deal with cultural heritage accessibility issues.