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The paper explores the role of inclusive pedestrian pathway design in enhancing natural and semi-natural, urban and peri-urban areas in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 11, which aims to provide universal access to safe and inclusive green spaces by 2030. The research takes a multi-scale approach to environmental design, considering both the broad landscape context and the specific details of individual interventions that affect people’s mental and physical well-being, integrating principles of Design for All and Sustainable Development. Focusing on four categories of requirements for the full enjoyment of places by different users, the presented methodology is applied to the proposal of a pedestrian routes network to enhance the cultural and architectural heritage. Obstacles and critical issues of the site have been considered and ranked according to their impact on user fatigue, comfort and general safety, and design solutions have been proposed to mitigate them. The project strategy also includes measures to protect the environment and promote sustainable tourism, potentially serving as a model for other sites. Ongoing monitoring and maintenance are essential to the success of these interventions, which can have a significant impact on the physical and mental health of citizens and for promoting sustainable urban development.

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) tells us that every person, throughout their life, can find themselves in a situation that causes conditions of limited physical, mental, intellectual, and sensorial abilities. The ‘WHO World report on vision’, in 2019, estimates that 2.2 billion people have a visual impairment due to various conditions and situations. Since most communication is visual, this can be a source of isolation and weakness to all people with visual impairments. The built environment has been designed to be enjoyed by sighted people, but this makes it difficult for visually impaired people to use. One of the main difficulties for blind people is indeed adapting and orienting themselves in unfamiliar indoor environments. This is particularly noticeable as it is necessary to have clear guidance with the help of assistive devices in order to better understand unfamiliar spaces. There are several solutions on the open markets that allow visual impairment people to better enjoy the environment. Based on a literature review, the aim of this paper is to examine the various existing research studies that investigate how environmental design can support accessibility for people with visual impairments.

According to the WHO, physical factors of the built environment are considered health determinants and may affect people’s mental health in terms of cognitive perceptions and physical responses, triggering anxiety, stress and depression states. The purpose of this research is to carry out a literature review of the environmental, spatial and technological conditions that may affect occupants’ mental health and well-being, particularly fragile people, such as elderly and people with sensorial or cognitive impairments including autism, and that may work as positive stimuli, or hindering elements for their abilities and limitations, influencing decisively their quality of life. The result consists in a set of guidelines for the design of the built environment that, starting from people with special needs, can improve liveability conditions by favouring mental health and well-being for all.

The World report on ageing and health highlighted the need to ensure age-friendly environments to foster active and healthy ageing because, as the World Health Organization has estimated, the number of people over 60 is set to double by 2050. Recently, SHAFE (Smart, Healthy, Age-Friendly Environments) has been proposed as a design approach to face the challenge of ageing. SHAFE model is focused on two goals: the promotion of smart and inclusive solutions to improve the independent life throughout the life course, regardless of age, gender, disabilities, cultural differences and personal choices; the optimization of social and physical environments, supported by digital tools and services. Nevertheless, studies on how to apply integrated principles of SHAFE to architectural design are still lacking, even if the interdisciplinary network NET4Age-Friendly is the most recent application of SHAFE model and aims to implement its practice and deployment. Based on a literature review, the paper discusses the contribution of environmental design for improving SHAFE approach on architecture, to build living spaces really responding to the changing needs of people from the ageing in place to the long-life approach.

The article focuses on climate-proof Smart, Healthy, Age-Friendly Environments (SHAFE) environments. Topics include the impact of climate change on health and ecosystems, the vulnerabilities of the elderly population to extreme weather events, and strategies for designing climate-proof living spaces to address these challenges.

A significant number of publications demonstrate the growing interest in connecting studies on sustainability with HCD-related interventions, though a complete analysis of all endogenous and exogenous dynamics of research lines currently developed has never been made. A study depicting the main cross-sectoral results developed in the recent years would help researchers in design-related areas to improve sustainable design processes and practices, as well as the knowledge needed to identify the unexplored research niches to focus on in the future to produce non-redundant advances toward sustainability's goals. A systematic literature review of a sample of 122 works allowed us to identify and describe the main themes within this integrated research area and to provide future research trajectories for applied research and practice on sustainable HCD connected to the SDGs. Data found in this work show that studies linking sustainability and HCD produced a complex research framework mainly articulated into four principal design areas: (i) health and wealth, (ii) education, (iii) industrial innovation, and (iv) built environment and living communities. Finally, this study provides designers and researchers working in the HFE and sustainable design macro-domains an overview of the current and future trends where research synergies between sustainability and HCD are likely to develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution presents part of the results produced by the University of Naples Federico II in the project PRIN 2017 TECH-START. The research investigates how the challenges of the circular economy and climate mitigation, combined with digital technologies, require new organisations for contemporary dwelling, including the need for healthy and safe environments. The contribution studies the concept of emergent dwelling with the aim of achieving a set of design requirements consistent with the many, diverse forms of living. These requirements apply to the project of a multigenerational lifetime house, selecting those most suitable for a smart residency that integrates the socio-productive and health care chain into the territory, with particular reference to the elderly population and the most fragile groups in a lifecourse perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper depicts emerging scenarios of environmental design, in connection to the paradigm shift brought about by digital technologies, and awareness of future challenges. It reviews selected researches and projects applying ecological thinking principles. It aims at raising awareness on heuristic approaches in research and design. The paper focuses on collective design as a way to improve the governance of complexity in the current anthropogenic era. The main conclusion highlights cultural marks depicting contemporary research trends, with a view to translate theoretical insights into practical experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architectural and urban design is at the center of a recent scientific and disciplinary debate investigating several limits and contradictions: on one hand, concerns due to modified social practices; on the other hand, regulatory densification, scarcely capable to intercept inconsistencies and varieties of social innovation. Although it is widely accepted that environmental certification protocols at the buildings scale pay little attention to social dimension of sustainability, their recent evolution at the neighborhood scale is leading to a greater integration of human factors issues and participatory practices, able to pursuit aims of social justice, enhancing the design ethical dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though all human activities are executed in a built environment, only a few studies seem to be available about a building design methodology based on an ergonomic approach. The article presents a preliminary survey of some principles driven by human factors/ergonomics discipline, analysing the role they play in the architectural design process, in order to define a design methodology supporting the building designer to create working and living spaces actually fitting the needs of inhabitants. The human-centred building design methodology presented here takes inspiration from the holistic approach of ergonomics. It depicts an iterative process for architectural design activities including human factors principles, such as users’ involvement, their variability and diversity consideration, stereotypes and standards followed. The design methodology is described in operational steps supported by practical examples related to different architectural scales. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Advanced Air Traffic Management (ATM) concepts related to automation, airspace organization and operational procedures are driven by the overall goal to increase ATM system performance. Independently on the nature and/or impact of envisaged changes (e.g. from a short term procedure adjustment to a very long term operational concept or aid tools completion), the preliminary assessment of possible gains in airspace/airport capacity, safety and cost-effectiveness is done by running Model Based Simulations (MBSs, also known as Fast Time Simulations - FTS). Being a not human-in-the-loop technique, the reliability of a MBS results depend on the accuracy and significance of modeled human factors. Despite that, it can be observed in the practice that modeling tools commonly assume a generalized standardization of human behaviors and tasks and consider a very few range of work environment factors that, in the reality, affect the actual human-system performance. The present paper is aimed at opening a discussion about the possibility to keep task description and related weight at a high/general level, suitable for an efficient use of MBSs and, at the same time, increasing simulations reliability adopting some adjustment coming from the elaboration of further variables related to the human aspects of controllers workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pharmaceutical plants are usually characterized by workplaces with quality levels generally higher than in other manufactoring sectors since healthcare products need to be produced in special conditions, keeping under a strong control hygiene, chemical and biological contaminants, and giving a particular emphasis on equipment maintenance. Limited physical work load, a low rate of injuries and work related pathologies together with a high level of quality process control contribute to consider pharma work conditions as generally light and safe. In this kind of contexts risk assessment cannot be based on factors individually considered, neither work load can be essentially measured on material handling and physical effort. Risk assessment and work environment improvements, on the contrary, have to be studied by an integrated view point. The paper presents methodologies and results of the applied research project IntegrARE (INTEGRated Assessment of Risks within Ergonomics) aimed at analyzing, in a big solid forms pharmaceutical plant, three different risk categories - architectural, ergonomic and active pharmaceutical ingredients risks - in order to highlight possible interactions on workers health, safety and wellbeing. After a detailed risk situations survey, singularly analyzed by a number of ad-hoc procedures, the study presents a methodology for integrated assessment of risks, aimed at identifying and evaluating integrated effects increasing or triggering risk situations for workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature shows incidence of musculoskeletal disorders in bricklaying workers as well as the relevance of good designed hand-held tools in musculoskeletal disorders prevention. In this framework, it can be supposed that providing usable hand-held tools and material in construction worksites will help to improve bricklayers' working conditions. Here a study is presented aimed at framing a methodology for usability assessment of bricklayers handled objects, in order to provide employers with practical indicators for choosing tools and materials best fitting workers needs, under the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction perspective. On the basis of a task analysis, usability requirements for bricklaying hand-held tools and materials have been detailed and related, quantitative and qualitative, technical specifications have been elicited. Theoretical framework and usability assessment methodology are presented and, finally, findings from a field application are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an applied research aimed at understanding the relevance and the applicability of human related criteria in sustainability assessment of construction materials. Under a theoretical perspective, human factors consideration is strongly encouraged by building sustainability assessment methods, but the practice demonstrates that current models for building sustainability assessment neglect ergonomic issues, especially those ones concerning the construction phase. The study starts from the observation that new construction techniques for high energy efficient external walls are characterized by elements generally heavier and bigger than traditional materials. In this case, high sustainability performances connected with energy saving could be reached only consuming high, and then not very much sustainable, human efforts during setting-up operations. The paper illustrates a practical approach for encompassing human factors in sustainability assessment of four block types for energy efficient external walls. Research steps, from block selections to bricklaying task analysis, human factors indicators and metrics formulation, data gathering and final assessment are going to be presented. Finally, open issues and further possible generalizations from the particular case study will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The link between ergonomic/human factor and sustainability seems to be clearly evidenced mainly in relation to social dimension of sustainability, in order to contribute to assure corporate social responsibility and global value creation. But the will to establish an equilibrated connection among used resources in human activities, supported by the sustainability perspective, evidences that the contribution of ergonomics/human factors can be effectively enlarged to other aspects, especially in relation to building design. In fact a sustainable building is meant to be a building that contributes, through its characteristics and attribute, to a sustainable development by assuring, in the same time, a decrease of resources use and environmental impact and an increase of health, safety and comfort of the occupants. The purpose of this paper is to analyze in a broader sense the contribution of ergonomic/human factor to design of sustainable building, focusing how ergonomics principles, methodology and techniques can improve building design, enhancing its sustainability performance during all phases of building lifecycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indoor built environments' design and management require a holistic approach inspired by ergonomic principles and sustainability criteria. This is especially in case of renovation of existing buildings where any kind of intervention requires the direct feedback of occupants. This work deals with two aspects of these issues, often studied separately: the quality of interior spaces, in terms of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), and the quality of the architecture in terms of orientation and wayfinding. A methodology focused on the subjective evaluation of the IEQ giving relevance to users and their fruition needs is also proposed. Main findings from a specific subjective investigation carried out at the Fisciano Campus of the University of Salerno (Italy) demonstrate that the subjective approach is a valuable tool to make more sustainable intervention strategies. In this way, all multidisciplinary skills can be synergically involved in improving the livability of a complex reality as University Campuses are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]