Bus Stop

For Merano, an Italian city with a strong tradition in the hospitality and tourism businesses, it is fundamentally important to guarantee the accessibility of its public services to all: inhabitants and guests, whether disabled or not. The city administration decided to take a concrete step in enhancing the accessibility of its public transport network and thus originated an urban intervention project in which Marazzi, Studio A4 from Merano and Studio & Partners from Milano took an active role, supported by the IIDD - Design for All Italy. A public transport line was used as pilot project.Stops and easy entrances, accessible for all, were introduced, together with tactile walks: an overall solution that was conceived to make the information and the maps clear, understandable and usable for all. Conscious of the importance of the relationship between the product and the environment in which it is used – meant not only as a physical place in which the product will be used but also as a building site – the Marazzi Group has created an ad hoc, open, multi-disciplinary lab, focused on Design For All, in which the different competences and personalities found room for confrontation.The user, with all his or her characteristics, was thus at the basis for the development of the Autonomy project from the analysis, to the design and fi nally to the production phase, also including its application within a wider context.