Notes on Doctoral Research in Design. Contributions from the Politecnico di Milano

The Politecnico di Milano was among the first universities in Italy to start a PhD programme in Industrial design in 1990. During twenty years the research activity has strengthened the disciplinary core of design, has specified the methodological aspects and theory, while the topics of research were gradually expanded to those new fields that design was embracing, such as sustainability, services and interface design. In 2008 the programme – now PhD in Design – focused its attention on the nature of design, with its aesthetic, formal, performance and meaning values. In this respect the challenge has become to reconsider design activity, notably that related to practice, as the centre of investigation. The book (edited by the author) collects the first results of this new direction of research. Most of the contributions for the book have been written on the occasion of the PhD Opening Ceremony, held at the Politecnico in March 2010 and focused on the relations between Design and Science. The essay by the author, entitled “A cultural shift: the role of Italian design in the doctoral programme approach”, briefly summarises a forty-year debate on this topic, focusing its attention on two concepts both defined from mid ’70s onward: that of “wicked problems” as typical of design process (Rittel and Weber, Schön, Buchanan) and that of a “designerly way of thinking”, as an autonomous way of thinking distinct from that of science and the humanities (Archer, Cross). Following the debate on these concepts, similarities can be recognised among them and some of the main features of Italian tradition, notably that of a “critical” approach to design, a way of thinking that can be invigorated and renewed within a PhD programme.