Design International

This book explores how design can build capacities for individuals, organizations, and ecosystems, enabling them to navigate the complexities of sustainability transitions. The book introduces the ECODeCK project, a design-driven capacitybuilding model developed to support sustainable transitions in the manufacturing sector.

This volume examines the transformation of yacht design within the context of the digital and industrial transitions characterising contemporary design practice. Drawing on over ten years of research, the volume investigates how computational technologies, advanced manufacturing, and data-driven systems are redefining processes, roles, and disciplinary boundaries in the yachting industry.

This volume examines the evolving role of prototypes in design research, emphasizing their function as intentional and transient objects that facilitate the transition from abstract concepts to concrete design outcomes. The book investigates how prototyping contributes to knowledge generation, design process development, and the articulation of experiential understanding.

This volume investigates the potential of Socio-Cultural Hybrid Spaces as engines of urban regeneration, democratic participation, and cultural innovation. Through four main sections, the book develops a critical and impactful perspective on the functions, design and interdisciplinary approaches, and transformative potential of Socio-Cultural Hybrid Spaces.

Issue One extends Design Philology Essays from origins to an expanded, research-driven atlas of Italian academic design. Anchored in the platform’s digital archive, editorial environment, and hypertextual infrastructure, the volume deepens inquiry into genealogies, platforms, and frontiers that have shaped the Design System at Politecnico di Milano and across Italy.

This book explores the transformative potential of design within agri-food systems. Inspired by Victor Papanek’s call to address real human needs, the book adopts a transdisciplinary and situated approach to investigate food as both a medium and an object of design.
Blending theory and practice, it traces the evolution of the food design field and introduces a six-mediation framework for understanding food experience.

This book explores the role of generative AI—particularly text-to-image tools like Midjourney—in the early stages of the product design process. The research aims to examine how these tools can support the conceptual phase of industrial design by fostering inspiration, accelerating ideation, and enabling new forms of creative collaboration.

The PPP-URB project is a key initiative within the Onfoods PNRR research program, aimed at reimagining urban food systems. The project investigates the role of food ecosystems in small territorial units, with a particular focus on university campuses, to understand their influence on local systems.