Urban walks–with fingers
URBAN tactile tables proposed by CITISLAB offer a three-dimensional representation of an urban landscape. The panels, placed flat on a stand, feature high three-dimensionality and are designed to be easily approached in an intuitive manner, facilitating spatial orientation and offering an interactive and accessible experience for all users.
The special working with three-dimensional building models, which depending on the degree of reduction will be more or less schematic, combined with the use of different materials and tactile indications allow the visitor to explore the layout and characteristics of a city or historic town (or parts of it), or of a neighborhood or square or urban compartment, understanding its urban characterizations, spatial relationships, symmetries, having a clear information about his position as an observer and while enhancing the perception of the environment in a multisensory way.
A tactile table of an urban landscape will then present, through three-dimensional models, the architectural elements peculiar to the documented space (churches, monuments, blocks, bridges and various artifacts) while through explorable surveys both linear signs such as roads and paths, rivers or canals, and areal signs such as squares and parks will be described.
All buildings will be represented to scale with different heights, streets and sidewalks can be defined with raised lines to delineate possible visitor routes, and parks and green areas will be recognizable through raised textures.
Depending on the reduction applied, raised symbols may be included to indicate points of interest, such as museums, stations or monuments.
There will also always be Braille texts to describe the main areas of the city or suburb or neighborhood.
An immersive and certainly fulfilling experience
The desire to offer tools that allow as many people as possible to live an engaging and, consequently, fulfillingexperience determines and inspires the design and composition of these tactile tables, where original solutions are adopted developed thanks to the fruit of the work and experience gained by our team in years of work on the graphic representation and tactile transposition of the urban scale.
The UrbanTactile Tablesthat CITISLAB proposes are therefore presented as an innovative solution in the research, now underway for a long time, of methods and supports able to promote the ‘ accessibility within urban spaces of particular value and value, offering opportunities for inclusivity in the visit routes and ensuring, above all, individual geo-referencing in a space that, when unseen, always risks appearing as hostile.
Urban Tactile Tables are intended for all
These products, in fact, do not specifically target users with special needs but are by their very nature created for any type of visitor using easily understandable forms and language. In the case of urban representation, they also perform a specific function related to orientation in space.
Tactile tables and production methodologies
The reproduction in bas-relief and that in in the round (3D) are the most immediate and most widely used methods of tactilely translating the shape of an object that cannot be directly experienced. These tools allow, not only people with visual impairments, to define the shape of buildings and deepen their understanding of the urban space in which they are located. The correct three-dimensional representation to scale offers, in addition, the opportunity to discover the dimensional relationship existing between the space that surrounds us, the buildings that characterize it and ourselves.
The Urban Tactile Tables that CITISLAB develops possess all the characteristics dictated by the rules of good execution of typhlological tools that make them effective and universally accessible the sign, such as: correct implementation of reliefs, 3D models and braille writing, preparation of simplified drawings but with non-superficial content, clarity in the contour lines of the figures, and respect for the proportions of the elements. In addition, the tactile tables we propose comply with current laws and regulations regarding usability of places and overcoming and eliminating the architectural barriers.
In the design of tactile tables the challenge we always face is to identify an accessible language that renders the architectural reality around us in the most realistic and objective way. Particularly for this type of tactile table, it is important to respect the proportions between parts and the correctness of scale reduction of models and floor plans.
The prototyping of three-dimensional models is always preceded by the preliminary acquisition of technical documentation (drawings, surveys, etc.) essential for digital modeling. During the realization, special care is given to the design phase, both in terms of the realization of digital models and the choice of materials.
The material with which to make the model will be chosen according to its location (internal/external) and in relation to the characteristics of the object to be reproduced with the aim of obtaining the most faithful reproduction possible also in relation to the tactile experience of the original material. Therefore, the most suitable technologies will be used in relation to the type of material (3D printing, CNC milling, laser cutting, etc.).
The placement of Urban Touch Tables.
Tactile tables due to their descriptive and informative features relative to an urban space are usually placed inside infopoints or tourist promotion offices as an initial presentation of the city/historical center/town/neighborhood or, alternatively, outside and in strategic locations such as at points where guided tours are scheduled to start. They offer themselves as a valuable knowledge tool, enabling visitors to understand and learn more about the peculiarities of the urban space before they begin their visit, and are highly appreciated by Certified Guides who can strategically use them as valuable explanatory support.
The presence of the three-dimensional model also constitutes a useful teaching aid made available to teachers of schools of all levels in the study of the history of art, architecture and urban history of a place.