Matera, City of Culture

The DisOrdinary Architecture Project worked with students from the Open Design School, a major part of Matera’s City of Culture 2019 programme, bringing young professionals in design and architecture together to collaborate on improving the city’s infrastructure and supporting events. The aim was to learn from our disability-centred methodology, so that the students could then continue to explore and take forward making accessible spaces and events for the whole year-long festival. 

Across two days, we ran a series of foundational workshops and talks; and then visited and mapped an abandoned building – called Circo - next to a shopping mall in the suburbs. This was to explore what kinds of design improvements would enable it to become a possible venue for disabled and non-disabled dance company Stopgap to perform during the festival; and also to work with the Municipality of Matera on creating proper space for performing arts in the city. We also contributed to a Europe Beyond Access symposia that was happening at the same time.