Design International - Open Access

This volume is part of an editorial project aimed at enhancing the history of design at Politecnico di Milano and, in particular, inaugurates the series The Masters, dedicated to the figures whose thought has fueled the cultural pluralism that is the hallmark of the entire institutional project. The remembrance of the Masters begins with Alberto Seassaro, the demiurge, a Dean capable of giving Design a home by conceiving and building the first Italian Faculty at Politecnico di Milano.

The history of puppets happens to be the one of human evolution, because puppets have inhabited human religious rites, technological experiments, artistic purposes and have been used as entertainment tools. This volume focuses on a specific typology of puppets, the animated ones, used even today as protagonists of stop-motion films. By engaging an interdisciplinary analysis of animated puppets’ manufacturing processes, this book places a challenge: it merges design and film studies’ methods of analysis and applies criteria of material examination of design objects to investigate puppets’ material aspects.

What are the social facts that led to the need to activate social innovation processes? What is (and what can be) the role of design in these processes?
The challenges of modernity and post-modernity have led designers to become often protagonists and activators of sustainable and social innovation processes, possible thanks to users' and stakeholders' involvement in co-creation processes.
This book adopts a multidisciplinary approach to eviscerate social innovation as a concept with its foundation in theoretical, political, and methodological domains. The present discussion will be based on sociology and design. The first will mainly define the theoretical framework of reference; the second will mostly deal with experimental and applied research dealing with social innovation.

The volume investigates a wide sphere of issues referring to an extended concept of “matter” – the word matter intended not only as materials as such but also of content and relationships – through design actions, approaches, processes, tools and methodologies employed in different areas and with different objectives, yet united by the desire to intercept the current shift, sometimes reinventing and sometimes evolving programmatically over time to embrace the changed framework.

The fashion industry is entering the dynamic global competitive market, promoting various actions prioritising design, creativity, sustainability, and technological advancement as pivotal factors. The book analyses the multifaceted nature of the fashion retail experience through the lens of the design discipline, aiming to contextualise the evolution of retail within increasingly complex processes, networks and interconnections, both theoretically and practically.

In October 1993, the first Bachelor’s Degree Program in Industrial Design in Italy was inaugurated at Politecnico di Milano. This volume – Issue Zero – launches a publishing initiative that, grounded in a reflection on the historical memory and cultural roots of Politecnico di Milano’s Design System, aims to sustain the distinctive forward-looking spirit of Polytechnic design culture. Its goal is to place design at the service of today’s cultural, social, technological, and environmental challenges.