Designing Designers

The chapter presents and discusses, using various archival materials, the educational approach of the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano. This approach integrates diverse and complementary disciplinary contexts to transfer cultural and professional skills, training designers in knowing-that, knowing-how, and knowing-to-be. To explore and understand how Polimi's design educational approach influenced the professional lives of its alumni, twenty-five interviews with former students were conducted in 2023 as part of the initial creation of the Design Philology archive. This exploratory work, qualitative and non-exhaustive, provided an initial understanding of the strengths and limitations of Politecnico’s approach to design education. These insights are grouped and discussed under the following themes: international vision, political vision and values, transdisciplinarity, the attitude of learning to learn, research and creativity, teamwork, pioneering spirit, and overall impact.