Co-designing a walkable city for the elderly through system thinking approach

This paper is based on a research project carried out in the Metropolitan Area of Milan, which looks at cities of the future as highly populated by long-living active people and characterized by innovative technological facilities. The project is conducted based on a multidisciplinary research approach with the goal of studying how to enhance the elderly’s walking activities in urban environments. The whole process has applied the system thinking approach to actively engage participants (senior citizens) and stakeholders in all the research steps. Findings have revealed the presence and absence of hardware and software of urban environments in terms of walkability for the elderly. The research concludes with a reflective definition of walkability parameters emphasizing the soft aspect and a systemic design guideline for future development.