Sara De Menech, Erica Lombardo, Asja Aulisio, Silvia Barbero, Claudio Germak, and Andrea Strippoli
The Torino Design City Festival 2026 emerged from a participatory design process that engaged institutions, universities, businesses, and civil society in shaping a shared vision of design as a catalyst for urban innovation. Coordinated by the Politecnico di Torino, the initiative builds on Turin’s decade-long experience as a UNESCO Creative City of Design, a designation awarded in 2014. The process activated a multi-stakeholder ecosystem in which diverse perspectives, expertise, and disciplinary approaches converged around common goals. Historically characterised by a strong industrial and automotive heritage, Turin has progressively transformed this legacy into an internationally recognised design culture, becoming the first World Design Capital in 2008 and subsequently consolidating a collaborative, multi-level governance model.
Drawing on actor network mapping and systemic design methodologies, the co-design process was developed through iterative and progressive phases, fostering the engagement of a distributed network of heterogeneous stakeholders around a shared vision for the city.
This paper explores how the plurality of perspectives and competences within such a stakeholder ecosystem can be coordinated and leveraged as a strategic design resource within a systemic design process. By analysing the development of the Torino Design City Festival 2026, the study contributes to the broader discussion on the diverse applications and interpretations of systemic design in urban and territorial contexts.
Keywords: participatory design, actor network mapping, collaborative ecosystems, systemic design