Italian Design Day: Design and Future Cities

Italian design has anticipated some of today’s leading design areas, including service design, design for social innovation, design for digital transformation, design thinking, and the contributions of design in policies for innovation sociocultural integration. The cities of the future will increasingly incorporate all of these areas. Taking inspiration from Italo Calvino’s book Le Città Invisibili (The Invisible City), Francesco Zurlo will discuss several case studies on the connections between the city and human relationships, exchanges, memory, signs, and desires with professors Denis Weil (Dean IIT Institute of Design), Michelangelo Sabatino (Dean, IIT College of Architecture), Anijo Mathew (ID), and Martin Felsen (CoA). The event is a collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Chicago with opening remarks by the Consul General of Italy, Giuseppe Finocchiaro. A reception will follow the discussion.

Francesco Zurlo is a professor of industrial design and deputy dean of the Design School at Politecnico di Milano. He is also founder and director of CI.lab, Politecnico’s research lab focused in creative industries, directs the executive master’s degree in design strategy and system innovation, and co-directs master’s degrees in strategic design and furniture design. He consults companies on new product development, is the author of numerous international publications about strategic design, design management, and design-driven innovation, and serves on the board of ADI Index—the publication of the ADI, the Italian Association for Industrial Design. He has a PhD in industrial design from Politecnico di Milano.

About IIT Institute of Design (ID)
IIT Institute of Design (ID) continually challenges what design is and can be. We focus not just on design itself, but the impact it has on the world around us. Founded by László Moholy-Nagy in 1937 as the New Bauhaus, for over 80 years ID has ignited imaginations—evolving design to combine form with human behavior, conquer complexity with clarity, and challenge convention through innovation in pursuit of a more sustainable future.

About IIT College of Architecture
The College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology builds on a legacy of disciplined experimentation in materials and technologies to educate and inspire the next generation of architects and landscape architects. From its landmark campus and home at S. R. Crown Hall, IIT Architecture champions an interdisciplinary approach to education and research that is simultaneously local and global in its impact. IIT Architecture students are educated to address complex, contemporary challenges of designing and constructing across all scales. Both faculty and students enjoy a longstanding relationship with professional practice in Chicago, a city with a vibrant history of innovation in architecture, design, landscape architecture, and urbanism.