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Auflistung nach Schlagwort "Inclusiveness"

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  • Konferenzbeitrag
    Bridging Generations: Exploring Virtual Reality Tourism and Universal Design in an Intergenerational Civic Centre. A quest for a fit in the realms of technology
    (INFORMATIK 2024, 2024) Botrous, Mirametta; Elkhalifa, Akram A.
    In 2018, an architectural graduation thesis titled, 'Adult Active Community: A Quest for a Fit' was presented in the School of Architecture, University of Khartoum. It aimed to serve a marginalized group of society—the elderly—under the theme of universal design and inclusiveness. It also reflects on the users as significant figures neglected in the local design codes. Therefore, the project aimed to bring them back into society through design attributes alongside another approach, connecting them with a different younger generation through Sudanese cultural heritage to bridge the generational gap. The project envisioned the Civic Centre as an intergenerational space and an educational content hub focusing on bridging the generational gap through space alone and the activities occurring in it between youth and the elderly who socialize in cultural evenings, talk events, and documentary nights, aiming at reminiscing the past. The result, however, was still a set of intangible literature, perhaps audible and visual in some materials, but still lacking the experience of space. This paper rethinks the preservation and revival of heritage in the Civic Center through the lens of sustainable tourism and virtual traveling. It also looks upon virtual traveling as an approach that utilizes the universal design theme. Furthermore, along with introducing technology to diminish physical barriers, the digitization of cultural heritage accentuated the environmental psychology of the space. During the fall semester, our group participated in creating a virtual platform of an app titled 'Heritage Link', which encourages sustainable tourism and virtual traveling. It has been introduced in this paper as a demo for creating an intergenerational space with an experiential dimension. In this paper, a few designs were reviewed as an example to present an idea that is closer to what we hope the Civic Center can be like someday, introducing its challenges and limitations. It showcases the role of virtual reality tourism and digitalized culture in fulfilling some of the major concepts of universal design and its ability to bridge the gap between generations while studying environmental psychology. Even though the thesis project was based in Khartoum, Sudan, it also aims to become a prototype for global implementation.