The Design of Public Space Augmentations for Encouraging Activities Conducive to Social Inclusion, Prevention and Rehabilitation

Among contemporary societal challenges there are those raising from the demographic processes along the globe. The new reality makes the designers face the yet unexplored needs of a society experiencing the dysfunctions connected with aging and disability. The architectural and urban design should follow the future requirements and remain one step ahead in order to arrange space to serve prevention of exclusion and dependence in the older age. Analysing the urbanization processes it is clear that the city would be more likely the place of residence for the people within the next 30 years. It creates multiple possibilities to benefit from the cultural as well as health care potential of urban centres and maintain the independence as well as the quality of life. Therefore contemporarily the greatest designer’s concern is accessibility. Nevertheless it has been observed that easy access leads to passivity and on one hand it leads to equal opportunities, on the other hand it creates no challenge and reduces motivation to train everyday life activities, which is necessary for elderly to preserve mobility. So apart from models of public space accessibility there should be also actions undertaken in order to raise motivation for functional training. The other issue in today’s generation behaviour is lack of physical contact and shifting communication platform from real life to virtual space. The result is that the social skills are dropping, and there is no motivation to initiate face to face contact. This process leads to the limitation of conversational talents, the lack of motivation to engage in social life and it leads to exclusion of those whose intellectual abilities are not sufficient to exist in virtual space. The purpose of this study is classification and valuation of public space design along with the dedicated activities in real and virtual space. The types of innovative solutions of public space design will be systemized and described to start the study on effectiveness of those methods in processes of social inclusion, developing communication skills, conducting motor training.