Towards a DSS: A Toolkit for Processes of Co-designing

Urban transformation practices have often involved formative experiences in order to set experimental design approaches which have involved different points of views (expert and non-expert), citizens and public administrations. One of the challenges is to understand how design processes can work to induce or be aware of the opportunities/risks of various cognitive approaches within different case studies and design objectives. The arguments of this essay are based on a series of research and educational experiments of designing public spaces carried out between 2011 and 2015 at Polytechnic of Turin in collaboration with public authorities in the Piedmont area. From these experiences, a "toolkit" was built to combine different critical issues that must be considered to design the process rather than the projects. Smart design solutions can be influenced by the processes which lead to the design solution. The goal of ToolKit is to become a support system in collaborative processes of urban design while tackling the opportunity of using participative methods.