The chapter intends to investigate design as a tool of inclusion and self-empowerment in several cases of “fragile dwelling”, understood as the condition of collective life in which the inhabitants -for different reasons- find difficulties in expressing their needs and expectations. The use of drawing by the inhabitants themselves was investigated through two co-design experiences conducted within research on the living of particular minorities: the first with subjects with sensory disabilities -in particular autism- the second with detained people. Through a form of “non-extractive research”, the dynamics, practices and culture of the participants were observed and, in both areas examined, the comparison between researchers and participants in the workshops of co-design has served to ideally overcome the physical and mental barriers that separate the excluded and the included, what is called “normal” and what is perceived as deviant, the inside and outside, implementing the ability of all stakeholders to imagine and produce change. During these experiences, the role that the architect assumes is not that of “facilitator”, as happens in the consolidated methodologies of participatory design - more used to identify the
needs of urban communities or neighborhoods - but that of decoder of maps of the sensitive and
desire.
