Master of arts in Transdisciplinary Design

The agenda of global priorities - set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reminds us daily, the urgence to design the sustainable solutions able to improve the living conditions of people worldwide, in the future scenarios of evolving city and mobility. We are aware that in order to identify and tackle such a challenge new approaches and new professional figures are needed.

From this awareness the first edition of the Master of Arts (Second Level Academic Diploma) in Transdisciplinary Design, is born in IED. A two-year course where research and experimentation are the key elements in the common programme, designed with shared goals, and the same approach and philosophy, which develops into two different focuses in each of the cities where it is offered. The theme of the future of mobility is the focus of Turin’s edition, while the theme of the evolving cities is the focus of Milan’s edition.

Open to students coming from different backgrounds, from design, to humanities or sciences, the study path offers to participants the experimentation of new ways to conceive and put in practice the relation between design and society.

Awarded Title: The course is accredited by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, (MIUR) awards a Second Level Academic Diploma, grants the acquisition of 120 ECTS valuable to access further studies in Italy and abroad.

The two-year course is addressed to both designers and not designers. Applicants for this programme will show a passion for designing real-world, people-centred responses to complex problems, in the domains of mobility and the future of urban environments, whether or not they have come from a traditional design school route.

In particular it can involve people who come from design, arts, sciences, humanities, economics, digital technologies, technology planning, system design and other fields.

A common feature of participants will be the strong motivation to utilise their knowledge and experience in addressing compelling problems in a transdisciplinary environment, the openness and will to contaminate and be contaminated by the interaction with classmates and lecturers with a peer-to-peer approach.

Methodology

The work context is co-operative and consists of a collective environment, with the Transdisciplinary Design Studio at its core: a place where participants, each coming with their own background and with their own set of skills, observe the world through the lens of design, and investigate the reality of evolving cities and mobility, sharing alternative point of views.

The Master of Arts in Transdisciplinary Design applies a didactic methodology based on systemic problematization: once defined a theme together, the participants are asked to work on one or more highly complex projects, with potential systemic impacts (technologic, economic, social, cultural)

Structure

The programme is structured over two years:

The first year is organised in three stages: Foundations, Framing the Context and Design Research.

It will explore methods and models of transdisciplinary design: it foresees the creation of the studio-team, the development of soft skills and of the necessary habits to work in a design team with a trans-disciplinary approach. It also envisions the analysis of a given briefing and the development of competences useful to tackle the complexity of scenarios and projects linked to the two city focuses.

The second year is composed of four stages: Ideation, Development, Test, Executive Summary & Final Exam. Operating as an international design team, the goal is to identify future scenarios and design disruptive projects enabling systemic changes.

Skills and knowledge acquired during the two-year programme will allow the definition of innovative entrepreneurial projects, to access strategic development positions both in private companies dedicated to Research and Development and in Public Administration consultancy, as well as in managing positions within local, regional and national authorities, dealing with mobility, sustainable development and infrastructures. For those wishing to pursue further studies, the programme grants access to the third level of higher education and Phd.