BEING A DESIGNER – Critical Thinking, Ethical Leadership, and the Milan Design Ecosystem

By the end of the semester, you’ll be able to:

• Demonstrate self-awareness and presence, and articulate a personal design vision through your own manifesto
• Apply interdisciplinary tools to frame design within ethical, cultural, and social contexts
• Conduct human-centered research and practice inclusive, impact-driven design
• Recognize cognitive biases and misconceptions that shape design thinking and decision-making
• Collaborate effectively across cultures and disciplines using facilitation and participatory methods
• Prototype and present design concepts through immersive, performative formats
• Reflect on future scenarios, unintended consequences, and responsible innovation
• Critically analyze design problems using logical reasoning and evidence-based methods
• Navigate Milan’s design ecosystem with confidence — understanding the network of institutions, professionals, and companies that sustain it

The curriculum is structured around five learning dimensions, inspired by the IDG framework and translated into the language of design.

Being — Self-Awareness, Presence, Identity Who are you as a designer? Through theatre techniques, self-reflection exercises, and Socratic dialogues, you’ll explore presence, communication, and leadership. You’ll develop a personal design manifesto — a statement of who you aspire to be and the values that will guide your practice. Cultural immersion in Milanese aesthetics and design rituals deepens your sense of place and identity.

Thinking — Biases, Deep Thinking, Creative Intelligence How do you think — and what shapes the way you think? This dimension tackles cognitive biases, logical fallacies, dark patterns, and systemic thinking. Through games, debates, and speculative design exercises, you’ll develop futures literacy and learn to question assumptions — including your own.

Relating — Empathy, Research, Impact How do you understand the people you design for? Field research, radical empathy tools, and inclusive design frameworks (including Design Justice) equip you to read social systems, power dynamics, and the real impact design has on communities and society.

Collaborating — Participation, Facilitation, Co-Design How do you work with others — especially across cultures and disciplines? This dimension focuses on power dynamics in design teams, participatory and community-led approaches, facilitation techniques, and rituals for creative collaboration. You’ll learn to listen, facilitate, and guide meaningful group processes.

Acting — Prototyping, Presentation, Public Impact How do you bring ideas into the world? From brief analysis to scenario design, from prototyping to immersive group exhibitions, this dimension is about making — and making your work matter. Urban interventions, guest critiques, and public presentations challenge you to communicate with clarity, conviction, and courage.

The program unfolds over one semester (September – December 2026), structured across three interconnected learning formats.

Lectures and Practical Sessions — 100 hours Inspirational masterclasses delivered by professors from POLI.design – Founded by Politecnico di Milano and leading industry professionals. Every lecture includes practical exercises for immediate application. Interactive Q&A sessions, round tables, and serious game dynamics ensure active engagement and deep conceptual understanding.

Final Project Work — 60 hours (+ 100 hours independent study) An interdisciplinary design brief is launched at the beginning of the program and develops in parallel with lecture content, encouraging you to apply new concepts as you progress. The work is collaborative and results in a portfolio-ready project. Final outcomes will be showcased publicly.

Cultural and Company Visits — 40 hours Guided visits to major design institutions, cultural landmarks, studios, and companies provide direct access to Milan’s design ecosystem. Every visit includes a preparatory briefing, and company visits offer real insight into how design is applied in today’s market. Your Abbonamento Musei Lombardia — a museum membership card included in the program fee — gives you unlimited free access to over 240 museums, exhibitions, historic residences, and cultural sites across Lombardy and Valle d’Aosta for a full year, turning Milan and the entire region into your extended classroom.

At the end of the program, every participant receives:

• A POLI.design Certificate of Attendance (Gold level, recognizing 300 hours of engagement)
• A Digital Open Badge formally recognizing skills and learning outcomes achieved
• A detailed educational transcript listing module titles, contact hours, and assessment results, which can be used to facilitate credit recognition at your home university.
• A portfolio-ready final project developed collaboratively over the full semester
• A personal design manifesto — a statement of your identity and vision as a designer
• An Abbonamento Musei Lombardia card — one year of unlimited access to 240+ museums and cultural sites
• An international network of peers, mentors, and design professionals built over four months in Milan

Milan is not just where design is exhibited — it’s where design is made, debated, and reinvented. The city’s unique ecosystem of universities, studios, companies, showrooms, museums, and events (led by Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week) creates an environment where design is a living, breathing part of daily life. POLI.design – Founded by Politecnico di Milano sits at the heart of this ecosystem, acting as a bridge between academia and the professional design world since 1999. Its co-founders include Italy’s most influential design associations — from ADI to FederlegnoArredo, from AIAP to the Compasso d’Oro. A semester here doesn’t just teach you about Italian design — it makes you part of it.

Four months in Milan. A lifetime of thinking differently about design.