Design for Future Fragilities @2033

Design for All is a systematic, holistic approach that calls for a team of specialists from various disciplines (including at least design, ergonomics and marketing…) to work together in synergy, while consulting with users at all stages of the process. This innovative methodology is promoted and monitored by EIDD-Design for All Europe and its national affiliates, present in 22 European countries in Europe and five more on four continents outside Europe. In the 2004 Stockholm Declaration, Design for All is defined as design for human diversity, social inclusion and equality. The Final Synthesis laboratory of the Milan Polytechnic School of Design aimed to adopt this vision and equip students with a new sensitivity and innovative design practices, suited to the complexity of our times and their constant changeability: necessary conditions for the development of a Master’s Degree Thesis in Integrated Product Design at the School of Design Milan Politechnic. The laboratory at the School of Design Milan Politechnic. was structured in a series of lectures and interventions by experts from various sectors and then in the definition of mini-design workshops to be carried out in groups, aimed at generating new product/service concepts. The first of these, co-ordinated by Giulio Ceppi, was aimed at defining diversities to come (2033), the fears and the opportunities that the future presents us, in order to be able to anticipate them, interpret them and make allowance for them. In fact, we want to design a future world of equal opportunities, rights and awareness that all need to be addressed and guided: design has the ethical task of anticipating sociocultural behaviours and trends, not just responding to the market. The 9 meta-design profiles that emerged were used in subsequent exercises, becoming the shared heritage of the laboratory and the final degree theses.