MADEC. Material Design Culture deals with research on the relationship between design and materials, design and material cultures in order to activate processes of production innovation and territorial development.
The group offers research and consultancy services through design expertise and the design-driven material innovation approach.
MADEC deals with the performance, aesthetics and circularity of materials; with the application of new production technologies and new tools; with educational approaches and services related to the materiality of products.

MADEC researchers support companies, institutions, organisations, communities and territories to embark on a customised path to redefine their material and production identity without losing sight of values and identity. MADEC supports productive and cultural realities with capacity building projects, new teaching methodologies and knowledge transfer services related to the relationship between design and materials, helping companies and organisations to accelerate the transition to a circular economy model or digitally augmented materiality.

MADEC's expertise is based on the Italian culture of material design, understood as the ability to create new meanings for products based on material, integrated technologies and to generate product innovation with a holistic approach. MADEC applies a meta-design approach, involving the collaboration of different actors, disciplines and skills, capable of stimulating the design of new visions, material scenarios, patterns of new materials with a preference for biological and renewable sources and sustainability logics.

In terms of Circular Transition, the group proposes to introduce technological-productive changes in manufacturing companies, based on an in-depth knowledge of local realities, resources and waste, a prerequisite for starting new synergetic collaborations, where materials become a pretext to reflect on the territorial system of relationships between craft and industrial activities, resource flows and the development of production activities and spin-offs, in order to start a virtuous circle. The activities aim to increase the capacity of companies to reorganise material and waste flows, design new material samples, request an initial collection and develop digital product development tools.

MADEC aims to:

• anticipate social changes that lead to shifts in consumers' perceptions of materials;
• analyse and map new material trends;
• relate different manufacturing, processing and production realities;
• enhance product qualities through a suitable material solution and increase its appreciation through its materiality;
• design and organise material libraries within companies and other organisations to facilitate knowledge of new materials;
• map material and production waste streams for reuse;
• define new communication and storytelling approaches to the materiality of products;
• disseminate knowledge about new materials and production processes through conferences and seminars.