Category Archives: Activities

Activities, Teaching

Radical Design as a Critical Practice

A lecture within the Critical Histories of Furniture Design course (Politecnico di Milano × WRTH)

What if furniture could speak—and challenge the way we live?
As part of the Critical Histories of Furniture Design course, one of the core modules within the Politecnico di Milano × وِرث | wrth (Riyadh) Master in Heritage-based Furniture Design Program, students and WRTH colleagues joined a special session exploring Radical Design and why it still matters today.
We were delighted to welcome two Italian speakers invited by Prof. Beatrice Bianco: Franco Audrito, founder of Studio65 s.r.l and Maria Cristina Didero, international design curator. Continue reading Radical Design as a Critical Practice →

Activities, News

Heritage, AI, and Cross-Cultural Design Dialogues at Salone del Mobile.Milano in Riyadh

How are cultural heritage and artificial intelligence reshaping the future of design education across global contexts?

Prof. Francesco Zurlo, Dean of the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano, and Prof. Marinella Ferrara, Coordinator of MADEC Research Team, were invited to attend Salone del Mobile.Milano in Riyadh and its three-day cultural programme “Red in Progress”.

Continue reading Heritage, AI, and Cross-Cultural Design Dialogues at Salone del Mobile.Milano in Riyadh →

Activities

Designing Speculative Futures with the Senses and AI

Workshop facilitated by Paulo Eduardo Tonin

On 25 November, Paulo Eduardo Tonin, visiting PhD researcher at Politecnico di Milano and member of MADEC, conducted the workshop “Designing Speculative Futures with the Senses and AI” at the Department of Design. Responding to the increasing need for designers to imagine futures that are technologically grounded, emotionally resonant, and culturally inclusive, the workshop examined how multi-sensory design strategies—combined with AI-driven speculative imagination—can expand the capacity to envision hybrid “phygital” spaces where physical and digital layers coexist through human experience.

Continue reading Designing Speculative Futures with the Senses and AI →

Activities

WRTH Team’s Second Teaching Transfer at Politecnico di Milano

From January 13th to 17th, 2025, Dr. Reema Aldossari and Dr. Nadiah Alhumaid from the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts of KSA (WRTH) visited Politecnico di Milano for the second Teaching Transfer activity as part of the Higher Diploma in Traditional Product Development project. This visit built upon the foundation of the first transfer, offering an even richer and more immersive experience designed to deepen WRTH’s understanding of Politecnico’s design-driven methodologies and innovative teaching practices.

Continue reading WRTH Team’s Second Teaching Transfer at Politecnico di Milano →

Activities

Teaching Transfer from Politecnico di Milano to WRTH in Riyadh

From September 8th to 12th, 2024, a project expert team from Politecnico di Milano, led by Dr. Marinella Ferrara and Dr. Francesco Ermanno Guida, traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for an immersive Teaching Transfer with the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts of KSA (WRTH). Under the warm hospitality of Dr. Saber Marzougui, this event marked the first on-site teaching transfer of the Higher Diploma in Traditional Product Development project, directly bringing Polimi’s Design-Driven Methodology into Saudi classrooms.

Continue reading Teaching Transfer from Politecnico di Milano to WRTH in Riyadh →

Activities

WRTH Team’s Visit to Politecnico di Milano – 2024

From July 8th to 10th, 2024, a team from the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts of KSA (WRTH), led by Dr. Hesham Maghrabi, visited Politecnico di Milano. This Teaching Transfer activity was part of the Higher Diploma in Traditional Product Development project, aiming to enhance teaching methodologies and refine future strategies through face-to-face exchange and practical insights.

Continue reading WRTH Team’s Visit to Politecnico di Milano – 2024 →

Activities

Circular Material for Creative Industries: The Emerging Bioplastics

This is a research activity related to MaDe – Material Designers International Project. MADEC contributes to the project, the research activity, and workshops in the Politecnico di Milano. Our contribution mainly deals with Circular Materials for Creative Industries.

Continue reading Circular Material for Creative Industries: The Emerging Bioplastics →

Activities

Multisensorial experience and emotional involvement with surfaces

La ricerca “Materiali, design ed estetica. Esperienze e coinvolgimenti in Abet laminati”, è una collaborazione con l’azienda ABET Laminati. La ricerca svolta presso MADEC a partire dal 2018 intende contribuire all’avanzamento degli studi sulla percezione dei materiali, delineando una metodologia orientata al design, utile all’analisi delle implicazioni della matericità delle superfici. Queste implicazioni sottendono a coinvolgimenti da cui dipendono l’accettazione e l’apprezzamento di prodotti e innovazioni, insieme alla creazione di significati da parte degli utenti. Continue reading Multisensorial experience and emotional involvement with surfaces →
Activities, Teaching

Augmented Materials for Tangible Interfaces: Experimenting with Young Designers

This paper deals with the design of emerging, augmented, ICS materials in the framework of a Design-Driven Material Innovation approach, presenting a selection of concepts of Tangible Interfaces, developed during a workshop held at Politecnico di Milano. Continue reading Augmented Materials for Tangible Interfaces: Experimenting with Young Designers →