Paolo Volonté
Design, Technology & Society
A sociologist working at the Design Department of the Politecnico di Milano, and today I took with me this strange object with a slightly high-tech, but also very low-tech design.
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The Department
The Department of Design is the leading Italian centre for scientific research in the field of design. Rooted in the Italian design culture, it is oriented towards exploring new disciplinary frontiers, putting design at the service of contemporary challenges.
Research
PARIPASSO - Per crescere insieme
The research project and participatory design workshops
News
Edible Futures – Designing veggie and fresh food services for the university
A workshop to design new sustainable food spaces and services on university campuses
News
Metadesign and Interiors. Designers’ voices and approaches
A new MOOC by Polimi DESIS Lab
Research
Politecnico di Milano ranked 6th globally in Design
QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025
Design for systemic change
NetZeroCities. Accelerating cities' transition to net zero emissions by 2030
The research project, the Mutual Learning Events and the Cities Mission Conference
News
Laboratorio COmeta wins first prize Design&Territories 2025
Awards
News
See allA new MOOC by Polimi DESIS Lab
Metadesign and Interiors. Designers’ voices and approaches
A new MOOC on Metadesign and industrialisation practices in interior design available on the Polimi Open Knowledge (POK) portal
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01/10
Exhibition
Interdipendenze. Visioni per l'abitare
2 July 2025, 1:00 pm, Ground Floor, Building B2, Durando Campus
Through the lens of speculative placemaking, the exhibited projects propose twelve design micro-worlds as narrative spaces, imagining devices, materials, and architectures to re-inhabit the city of Milan.
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02/10
Smart City Observatory
Infrastructure and services for an inclusive city
27 June 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Bocconi University, Room 35, Via Sarfatti 25
The workshop aims to provide a space for discussion on how to make infrastructure more inclusive, safe and sustainable.
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03/10
Exhibition
Giancarlo Iliprandi: two exhibitions at the ADI Design Museum and the Nuages Gallery pay tribute to the Italian creative artist's 100th anniversary
Two exhibitions dedicated to one of the protagonists of Italian design in the second half of the 20th century.
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04/10
A workshop to design new sustainable food spaces and services on university campuses
Edible Futures – Designing veggie and fresh food services for the university
An initiative to promote sustainable, creative, and accessible food practices while exploring new solutions for integrating fresh, local, and plant-based products into the services and spaces of Politecnico di Milano.
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05/10
The New Atlas of Digital Art
Students' work on show at MEET
19 June 2025, from 14.30 to 17.30, Viale Vittorio Veneto, 2, Milan
As part of the event “The New Atlas of Digital Art”, the projects realised by the students of the Computational Visual Design course will be presented.
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06/10
Screenings
Ricette d'autore. Piatti (più o meno inventati) raccontati alla maniera di grandi registi internazionali
June 21, 2025, from 7:30 pm, Nuovo Armenia, via Livigno 9, Milano
Screening of audiovisual projects from the Movie Design Lab, Communication Design Course.
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07/10
The final exhibition of the Horizon Europe project MUSAE
GROW, COOK, CODE. Rethinking Food Futures
June 21st to 23rd, Palace of Science, Belgrade
Eleven cutting-edge prototypes, developed through cross-sector collaboration, invite visitors to imagine the future of food.
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08/10
Online Webinar
From Theory to Practice. The Role of AI in Scaling Deliberative Democracy
June 20, 2025, 10:30 am - 1:00 pm, Online event
The event explores how AI and digital tools can support democratic processes and participatory governance. It includes an expert panel and a live demo of the ORBIS AI toolkit for argument mining.
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09/10
Presentation of the book “Systemic Service Design” with the author Mari Suoheimo
Care(ful) Design. Service Design re(turns) Systemic
June 24, 2025, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, Polifactory, B3 Building, via Privata Simone Schiaffino 22-30, Milan
How can service design rediscover its systemic principles to better address complex social-economic-technological challenges?
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10/10
Design for systemic change
Design Philology
A historical and philological research project to celebrate design at Politecnico di Milano
Meet our researchers
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Alessandro Colizzi
Join the dots: narrating design between archives and testimonials
I’ve just come back from Montreal, Canada, where I was a professor at the École de design at UQAM from 2005 onwards. I taught History of Graphic Design, Typography and Type Design, Exhibition Design and Critical Design.
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Stefana Maja Broadbent
The join challenges of social sciences and desing
I have recently joined the Department of Design as an Associate Professor. I am a social scientist.
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