About the conference

Despite DIN standards, scientific concepts and signed conventions, public spaces in Germany continue to be characterised by barriers and exclusion. In some cases, measures designed to reduce barriers themselves become barriers and have an exclusionary effect (see, among other things, the Corporate Social Responsibility Report (CSR) on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) 2023). This also includes attitudes and interventions that emphasise ‘otherness’ through special solutions or are not recognised in practice. This shows that a common transdisciplinary basis for understanding across disciplines and practical and scientific boundaries is necessary, together with experts in their own fields. In addition to the universal design specified by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, new spaces for encounter and discussion seem to be necessary as starting points for inclusive urban design. But what methods can be used to involve different groups of people and their expertise, and what measures can support inclusion in public spaces? These questions about the ‘how’ of inclusive urban design still lack answers in science and practice. The transdisciplinary teaching and research project DEIN*ORT, including the doctoral thesis, incorporates the perspective of people with dementia and Parkinson’s disease. This group is growing rapidly and suffers from severe stigmatisation (Friederike Asche 2025).

ARE YOU STILL BARRIERING OR ARE YOU ALREADY INCLUDING?

The conference, which includes an interactive festival, showcases transdisciplinary, inclusion-promoting experimental methods and possibilities. From artistic interventions to placemaking, publicly accessible spaces are being transformed in a participatory manner in the BMFTR-funded project DEIN*ORT. Methods and measures are being explored together with people with different experiences of barriers. Solutions emerge from the interaction between social organisation, inclusive spatial design and person-centred technology development. In the course of the project, formats were transferred to teaching and research in the context of the umbrella criteria of universal design (see cited in Herwig 2018, Asche 2023). The predominantly qualitative data was collected and evaluated during research stays in Copenhagen and Malmö, monitored by the sub-project managers at the University of Applied Sciences in Dortmund, as well as by cooperation partners and the participants themselves. The research results are being incorporated into Friederike Asche’s doctoral thesis and will be published there as a ‘catalogue of methods and measures for inclusive and health-promoting urban design’.

POP-UP FESTIVAL AND TRANSDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Under the motto ‘Are you still creating barriers or are you already inclusive?’, this conference combines scientific excellence with participatory practice. The focus is on the results of innovative transdisciplinary methods that have been newly linked from the fields of architecture, computer science and social sciences, (further) developed, triangulated and performatively evaluated together with and in practice. During the evaluation and pop-up actions on the way to the real-world laboratories, conference visitors can become actors themselves.

Research and conference focus

• Development of transdisciplinary methods by linking different disciplines, art and information, practice and theory, teaching and research
• Umbrella criteria of universal design as a guiding principle for methods and measures
• Participatory approaches as instruments of co-creative urban and spatial design
• Real-world laboratories & exhibitions: Practical testing and presentation of innovative concepts
• Micro-interventions for barrier-free use
• Evaluation & transfer: Joint analysis of the effectiveness and transferability of the methods developed
• Sustainability of the interventions: Establishment in computer science and architecture teaching