School of Design, Politecnico di Milano

Founding a new school at a university, and at a polytechnic established more than 100 years ago at that, is an ambitious task. The complexity of it becomes clear if you think that until then – 1993 – there was no recognised university-level design course in Italy. Launching such an undertaking was a small community of teachers, including Tomás Maldonado (director of the Ulm School of Design between 1956 and 1968) and Alberto Seassaro, the school’s first departmental head. With their extensive teaching experience and powerful vision, they clearly recognised the urgent need to train new professionals able to “tackle independently themes relevant to design, and to the planning of products and manufacturing processes”.