POLITECNICO DI MILANO DESIGN SYSTEM
THE SCHOOL OF DESIGN
The first degree course in Industrial Design at Politecnico di Milano was created twenty years ago, the first of its kind in Italy.

The training courses on offer are structured around two degree levels, the Bachelor’s degree, and the two-year specialisation degree.
There are currently 4 Bachelor’s degree courses on offer (3 years):
- Industrial Product Design (Milan and Como campuses) – Specialisation in: Product, Furnishings
- Fashion Design (Milan campus);
- Interior Design (Milan campus);
- Product Design for Innovation (Milan campus) – Specialisation in: Product Design, Service Design
- Communication Design (Milan campus)
- Design for the Fashion System (Milan campus)
- Interior design (Milan campus)
- Design &Engineering (Milan campus) – Specialisation in: Virtual, Manufacturing, Material
- Product Service Systems Design Italian member of the MEDes Network (Master of European Design) (Milan campus)
- Naval and Nautical Design (La Spezia, Genoa, Milan campuses)
The Department of Design is the first university department in Italy that deals with research and teaching in the field of design by statute.
It brings together a range of experiences, skills, and professions related to design, with the aim of pursuing excellence in the scientific, cultural, and educational fields, in response to the new problems posed by a technological, manufacturing, and professional environment that is constantly changing.
It bases its action and research initiatives, experimentation, and training programmes on the theories, methods, instruments, techniques, and cultures of artificial materials, communications, and service design.
The Department of Design promotes the development and transfer of the science, culture, and methods of design in the scientific areas and disciplines that interact with various areas (related to manufacturing and culture) of the information and knowledge society.
- promotes and coordinates research and training activities
- promotes and organises initiatives, publications, events, knowledge pools, and documentation centres, also in collaboration with other departments, centres, and institutions
- carries out research and provides consultation on contracts and conventions
- collaborates on the creation of teaching projects in related schools by providing teaching staff
- proposes and manages doctoral and first and second level masters courses, higher education and professional
- development courses, including in collaboration with other departments
- sets up and runs research and training laboratories.
LABORATORIES
The construction of the great laboratories supporting teaching design activities goes back to the experimental tradition of the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano, which adopts an inductive teaching model in which "knowing" and "knowing how to" mutually sustain and complete each other.
The laboratories are designed for implementing activities in order to allow students to verify the project outline and learn the usage of technical tools necessary for testing, representation and communication of projects.
The laboratories – run by the Department of Design – cover an area of around 10,000 m2 within the Milan Bovisa campus and, together with the huge network of engineering laboratories, constitute the largest international centre supporting research in the field of design in terms of size, available equipment, and the skills network. Politeca, an integrated documentation system for research in the field of design, is integrated into the laboratories.