Design International

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.

This book presents the results of the FARB (Fondo d’Ateneo per la Ricerca di Base) research project RELIVE, conducted within the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano. RELIVE aimed to explore and conceptualize a framework for designing living artefacts. The objectives of the research are the conceptualization of original theory regarding livingness and the exploration of design-oriented approaches to craft living artefacts using living materials and digital technologies.

The book focuses on four exemplified EM&Ts areas as results of the methods, gaps and issues related to their teaching methods. The four areas are: Experimental Wood-Based EM&Ts, Interactive Connected Smart (ICS) Materials Wearable-based, Carbon-based & Nanotech EM&Ts and Advanced Growing. It provides the setting up of a common/ novel method to teaching EM&Ts: to create new professional in young students, and to develop new guidelines and approach.

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.

This book investigates the role of interior design in the enhancement of the effectiveness of Non-Pharmacological therapies for Alzheimer’s disease care.  The author presents the conceptual model for an environmental system called “Therapeutic Habitat”, meant as a system of environmental interventions, based on tangible and intangible aspects, products and furniture, objects and services. Its aim is to enhance the well-being of people with dementia and stimulate recognition and interaction with the surrounding environment.

This volume offers a critical reading of Packaging Design in the Digital Age, tackling the issue of packaging for e-commerce and the strategies that designers can put in place with a view to sustainable innovation. Then the book explores the main types of e-commerce system to identify the existing material and immaterial flows and the related problems, from which the authors set out future systemic visions towards sustainable development. Case studies of packaging and e-commerce systems complement the different chapters to offer practical examples of innovation.

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.