Italia Design Field School

  • Project Type: Field Research, Writing
  • Duration: 7 weeks (Italy); 5 Months (Research + Process)
  • Role: Researcher; Writer

Results

Context

I was one of 13 students, hand-picked and led by field school director Russell Taylor to study Italian history, culture and design. The most exciting part of this research is interviewing the 13 prominent design companies and designers in Italy. My sub-team chose to focus on comparing Italy and China's approach to design and innovation. A research paper including various info models were developed as a result.

Process

The following shows the process of this Field School pointing to artifacts through the Italia Design website (link above). Please click on the links for further details and findings during each part of our study.

Hilltown Pitigliano

The study is broken up into three major phases: preparation, in field, and data processing. Before heading to Italy, we spent 5 weeks of intense research into Italian history and culture. We also each became experts in a particular designer or company where I chose to specialize and interview Carlotta de Bevilaqua, CEO of Danese. This preparation was essential to our study as it allowed us to understand the roots and the machine behind Italy's success in design innovation. Our four base cities were Rome, Dolciano (Tuscan countryside), Florence, and Milan. At each city we studied the cultre and urbascape through observation, exploration, and in-field projects. Examples include our Crypta Baulbi design charette and the Tuscan Hilltown Studies.

Me Interviewing Carlotta DeBevilacqua

The most important aspect of our in-field research is our interviews where we ask prominent designers and design companies across Italy questions relevant to our research topic. Interview questions were by no means generic as we ensured to tailor them to reflect the current state of Italian design as well as the interest of whom we were interviewing. Upon returning from Italy, we spent 4 months compiling and processing the data. I co-wrote and published a research paper as well as various parts of the website content.