Politecnico di Milano inaugurates the B.Lab and the Circular Fashion-Tech Lab
On January 27th, the Department of Design at Politecnico di Milano inaugurated the B.Lab – Biodesign and Materials Design for Transition Lab and the Circular Fashion-Tech Lab, two new research facilities dedicated to the ecological and digital transition of production systems.
The opening of the two laboratories forms part of the University’s research and innovation development strategy, with a strong emphasis on sustainability, digital transformation, and social impact.
Circularity, regeneration, and new materials are key concepts which, when applied to high-profile sectors such as fashion, can redefine entire industrial and consumption processes in a more sustainable direction. Experimenting in this field is essential for us
Donatella Sciuto, Rector of Politecnico di Milano
The inauguration took place in Building B3 at the Bovisa Durando Campus and included presentations of the two laboratories and their respective research areas, in the presence of Paola Bertola, Director of the Department of Design, and the scientific representatives Valentina Rognoli and Daria Casciani.
With B.Lab and the Circular Fashion-Tech Lab, the Department of Design is strengthening its leadership in research aimed at generating tangible impact, positioning design at the heart of major contemporary transformations and in the service of sustainability
Paola Bertola, Director of the Department of Design at Politecnico di Milano
Both laboratories were funded as part of the MICS (Circular and Sustainable Made in Italy) initiative, through the Fashion-Tech Design for Circularity (FasT4C) project, with funds from the PNRR - NextGenerationEU, and address the challenges associated with the transformation of contemporary production models with complementary approaches.
B.Lab - Biodesign and Materials Design for Transition Lab
B.Lab is a research laboratory dedicated to biodesign and the development of material design practices focused on circularity and regeneration. The laboratory is conceived as a space in which design contributes to the development of new materials derived from unconventional resources—such as local, abundant, and renewable sources; organic and non-organic waste; by-products; and waste streams from the technosphere—through biofabrication processes, DIY approaches, and more traditional production techniques.
B.Lab investigates alternative models of production and design in response to contemporary environmental, social, and material challenges. Its distinctive approach lies in integrating the “bio” dimension as an active component of the design process, understood as material intelligence composed of behaviours, temporalities, and constraints with which design engages through practices of observation, negotiation, and care.
The laboratory is led by Valentina Rognoli and Sofia Duarte, with day-to-day operations coordinated by Ziqian Yu (Lab Manager). B.Lab primarily hosts exploratory and experimental research activities, welcomes researchers and interns, and supports teaching activities focused on regenerative design.
Equipped with infrastructure for DIY material experimentation and basic biofabrication equipment—including activities involving algae, fungi, and mycelium—B.Lab explores materials for transition derived from renewable biomass, by-products, and waste streams. Particular attention is given to the concept of bioreceptivity, understood as the capacity of materials to accommodate and support the colonisation of living organisms.
These activities are developed within an interdisciplinary network involving the Fashion in Process and Design Intelligences research groups of the Department of Design at Politecnico di Milano, the Department of Management Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, and the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences at Università Politecnica delle Marche.
Circular Fashion-Tech Lab
The Circular Fashion-Tech Lab was established to support the fashion industry in its digital and sustainable “twin transition” by integrating design with Industry 4.0 and 5.0 technologies. It is conceived as a distributed and flexible research ecosystem aimed at overcoming the technological, organisational, and socio-cultural barriers that hinder the adoption of circular models across the entire fashion supply chain.
The laboratory adopts a design-driven approach in which design acts as a strategic driver of innovation throughout the whole value chain, from the design phase to end-of-life.
The scientific director of the laboratory is Daria Casciani, who oversees an infrastructure equipped with 3D scanning and body digitisation technologies, 2D and 3D CAD systems for parametric design, desktop 3D printers, and a collaborative robotic arm for additive manufacturing and digital fabrication on textiles.
The laboratory operates as a distributed infrastructure that brings together the Fashion in Process and Materials Design for Transition research groups of the Department of Design at Politecnico di Milano, the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Management Engineering (Polimi), the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering (Polimi), the Department of Developmental and Social Psychology at the University of Padua, and the Department of Environmental, Land and Infrastructure Engineering at Politecnico di Torino.
The laboratory also collaborates with companies and research centres to develop interdisciplinary pilot projects, advanced prototyping activities, research residencies, and degree theses. It was presented internationally at EU Design Day 2024 and 2025 in Brussels as an example of a socio-technical infrastructure supporting the green and digital transition of the fashion ecosystem.
