Facing Urban Ageing. Città Giardino Torino: micro adattamenti per una crisi invisibile

Disruptive demographic trends show a world that is rapidly ageing. The goal of this paper is to measure the possible fallout of the demographic phenomenon on the physical environment through multi-scale analysis - from the city to the house - and identifying the diachronic processes of adaptation and manipulation. The socio-demographic transformation has been interpreted by the demographers in terms of two forms of crisis: a future crisis of dependency and a crisis of programming of architectural and urban settings, which were previously dominated by the young. The heterogeneous literature focuses on the clinical aspects of the Environmental Gerontology or on the indications for the age-friendly city, overlooking the direct observation of the spaces and their transformation. The paper starts from this lack, reversing the perspective of cause and effect to find and highlight the elements of adaptation. In order to reach the geographical dimension of the phenomenon, the data related to the ageing population in the city of Turin are merged with the urban fabric. The ageing mapping obtained from this analysis shows the substantial convergence of the public city with the one of the elderly, with the exception of the neighbourhood of Città Giardino. Through the case study of Città Giardino in Turin and his story - made of continuous transformations - the paper points out the dynamic process of adaptation and some resilient practice. The analysis highlights the physical transformation and the tendency to place attachment, reinforced by new patterns of use of the existing public buildings. Within an invisible crisis and in a context of little institutional awareness, Città Giardino offers the opportunity to rethink urban policies and to organize a governance strategy in a longer time perspective.