Strategic Design

Research focus

The Peer review has evaluated this group as Average

This group of research has been one of the (worldwide) initiator of the topics of strategic design for sustainability, that is the use of strategic, service and communication design tools in order to conceive and develop sustainable product-service systems. This line of research has been promoted thanks to several research programmes: - 6 international research programmes, whose main are: HiCS, Highly Customerised Solutions (EU funded research within the Growth Programme, 2001-2004, VFP) and EMUDE, Emerging User Demands for sustainable solutions (EU funded specific support action, 2004-2006, VIFP) - 3 national research and project initiatives. The main research topics of the group are strategic design, design for sustainability and design for social innovation with a focus on the scenario building and solution development. The activities are both of basic and applied research. Given the rise of the environmental and social problems, and given the progressive extension of these themes bridging technical and socio-cultural issues, the role of design, and in particular of strategic design and service design, in these new arenas of discussion is increasing. In this dynamic framework the research team is now working two main directions: 1) To consolidate the international profile and existing relations creating a formal network of design centres (schools and agencies) on design for sustainability. This network, that now is under discussion, could be endorsed by UNEP (as many of the previous initiatives of the group) and could have four major pillars in Europe, Brazil, India and China (using as a basis the on-going work in these countries in the framework of the CCSL Project). Peer Review - Department of Industrial Design, Arts, Communication and Fashion (INDACO) 84 2) To develop specific action-research programmes in relation to some well defined fields of intervention: - New food networks, in cooperation with the Slow Food association, in Italy and at the international scale. This specific line of action is based on the results of past and on-going researches (the research HiCS, the develop of a solution oriented partnership methodology and a set of food delivery solutions; Creation of a new product and brand for a “well-being food”, 2005/2007, Sunstar Inc - Japan) and initiatives (the Slow+Design International Seminar). - Active welfare, bringing the experiences done in the field of collaborative services (the researches EMUDE, Lola, CCSL), in the discussion on the sustainable welfare (facing the crisis of the traditional welfare state ideas). - New residential services, the same experiences we have referred to in the previous point (on the EMUDE, LOLA and CCSL collaborative services), plus in particular, the ones done co-promoting the co-housing initiative in Milano (Co-housing. it) will be enhanced finding new opportunities of research and new forms of collaboration with other partners (and in particular, with the planners and territorial marketers).

Dipartimento di afferenza

Dipartimento di Industrial Design, Arti, Comunicazione e Moda (INDACO)

Docenti afferenti

Full Professors
Ezio Manzini
Assistant Professors
Anna Meroni