Narrative workshop experience. Design principles for an experiential learning program.

In the current state of the education for design, there has been a constant need for innovation in implementation techniques that are capable of activating learning processes in a more reflective and experiential way. The ability to maintain innovative design is more and more connected to being able to manage systems of transverse knowledge. When it comes to design thinking, the convergence of multiple and different disciplines has always provided great interest for the dynamic transferring of contents, procedures and tools. The variety of languages that are used in the project and the message being spread assume an important role more than before. The industries are always busier with an innovation of meaning in which it becomes key to return not only the physical qualities of the object but also the core values and the sensory, communicative, emotional and relational qualities. From a forming point, the new complexity of the design project, is oriented towards an experimental program of apprenticeship capable of managing both the material ad immaterial size of the production. In this context, the workshop appears as an activity aiming to activate interaction processes between the research and the action in designing. Inside the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano, the workshops showcase a powerful platform for networking between students, professionals, industries and researchers. The workshop became a “place” in which the knowledge and the experience of knowledge are recognized as the main factor for innovation. In addition, it also became a space where projects that require innovative solutions are addressed, as sometimes they are not referable to the teaching, professional or business practices that are traditionally instituted. Through the mapping of a series of case studies regarding workshops and of particular interest for the experimental level reached, it will proceed to the description of the methodological process and the learning experience underlying.