Abstract
The Agenda 21 program first suggested in 1992 and the European Directives 42/2001 and 35/2003
later mandated that territory planning in local administrations across Europe must include a participatory
decision making process that involves stakeholders in the decision making phase. This decision is supported by the urban sciences and many tools, mainly derived from group facilitation and conflict solving strategies, have been developed and introduced for this purpose. However, the transition from the common top-down to the more effective bottom-up planning approach requires an active involvement of relevant stakeholders, who first need to be sensitized. Fraunhofer IEC has been developing a platform to systematically structure and facilitate the participated process. On the basis of the Metaplan, the European Awareness Scenario Workshop (EASW) and Planning for Real tools, this participated platform foresees an iterative process that efficiently involves different types of stakeholders in order to provide sustainable development scenarios for territory planning. In this framework, Axiomatic Design could become a powerful instrument to validate whether development scenarios fulfill all stakeholders’ needs and to determine the most efficient way to implement them. This paper offers possible solutions for the integration of the Axiomatic Design methodology in a participated decision making process for urban development and highlights the potentials, criticisms and possible adaptation strategies.