Abstract:

This paper aims to specify the domain of Design Driven Transfer activities and identify future opportunities for international design driven activities which go beyond today’s “individual internationalization actions” developed by single design institutions around the world and seek for new forms of international cooperation.

Universities and design centers worldwide have developed original solutions in the field of design research and design education which aim to internationalize their national systems and adapt to today’s general tendency towards globalization. Briefly, the actions developed up to today can be divided into: actions for the internationalization of the curricula and actions for the internationalization of research models.

As other universities, the strategic design research community of the Politecnico di Milano has also been very active in international research and education projects. In particular, the main focus of the developed research activities has been to enable local communities to be capable of competing in global markets through strategic design tools. The communities involved in the research projects have been mainly small and Medium enterprises, artisans and local designers who long to reach new markets and therefore to compete nationally and internationally by strengthening their production with innovative design tools. 

Starting from recent experiences, the intent of this paper is to stimulate a common reflection in order to propose possible future alternatives in the field of global design. Case studies of projects developed with communities around the world will guide the reflection through doubts and critical points aroused in the past years.

For futher definitions of design driven innovation read: L. Collina, G. Simonalli, Generating Tools: Fighting Barriers To Innovation and E. Manzini, Design As A Tool For Environmental And Social Sustainability, in Design Issues In Europe Today, The Bureau of European Design Associations - BEDA White Book, ed. By Stuart Macdonald, The Publishers, NL, 2004; F. Zurlo, R. Cagliano, G. Simonelli, R. Verganti,, Innovare con il design, Il Sole 24 Ore, Milano, Italy, 2002; R. Verganti, “Radical design-driven innovation: the secret of Italian design”, Design Management Jornal, 2003; G. De Michelis, Knowledge creation and design driven innovation in the augmented districts, Paper presented in the National Conference of the SDI Agency, Milano , 9-10 July, 1998; Jaana Hytönen, Juha Järvinen, Anssi Tuulenmäki, From Design Services To Strategic Consulting: Improving Core Competence Of Finnish Design Consultancies, Designium - the New Centre of Innovation in Design, FI, 2004.

“Workshop on Global Engineering Education”, Jornal of Design Research, vol. 4, issue 4, 2004