On January 15-21, 2024 six teachers and students at Gengdan International Design Academy joined the Italian Design Culture Workshop in Milan, Italy. This workshop was planned and operated jointly by Gengdan International Design Academy and Milan Domus Design Academy.

Italy, especially the Milan area, is famous for its profound and special design history and culture. From product design to interior and architectural design, this workshop fully explored the multiply facets of Italian design, helping students understand the core elements determining design quality while tracing the stages of development of Italian design and the experience in linking history, modernity and futurity.

 

Apart from normal classroom lectures at school, students also attended the Master’s degree courses offered by Domus Design Academy whereby they had a personal experience of the special teaching methods at Domus Design Academy while deeply exploring the Italian design tradition and frontiers in case design. Besides experiencing classes, students paid a personal visit to Milan Polytechnic University, the Milan Brera Academy of Fine Arts and the Marangoni Academy of Design as well, feeling the different academic and design atmospheres of these three schools in a personal way.

 

1. Italian Design Culture Courses

2. The First Outdoor Classroom of Italian Design Culture: Milan Triennale Design Museum

 

As one of the most important modern design museums in Italy, with modern and contemporary design topics Milan Triennale Design Museum exhibits many works of design of multiple areas ranging from product design to interior design to architectural design. In the museum, there are a number of works of design by particular world-famous brands or godfathers, which indicates a close link between design and art and industry and shows various popular trends at present on the one hand and traces and reflects the Italian art and design history on the other hand.

Professor Andrea Foffa at Domus Design Academy introduced to students the developments of the Italian design style after the Second World War and special esthetics, creative ideas and personalization of Italian design, by which they might know about main features of the Italian design style in a direct way, in relation to ways of life, cultural ideas and social values every piece of work represents in a way that is invisible.

 

3. The Second Outdoor Classroom of Italian Design Culture: A Journey of Milan Architecture

Under the guidance of Professor Andrea Foffa, it was an honor for students to begin a wonderful journey of architecture by examining streets and alleys of Milan, the capital of design. This journey is different in that in order of the completion date of architecture students felt the developments and changes of the city through a succession of representative buildings in Milan. Not only students enjoyed Milan’s representative buildings of particular periods, but they also deeply understood the historical, cultural and social backgrounds of the buildings. Under the auspices of Professor Andrea Foffa, students had a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of Milan architecture and Italian design culture.

4. The Third Outdoor Classroom of Italian Design Culture: Milan Fornasetti Design Museum

 

During the journey of exploring Italian design culture, we came to the third station—Milan Fornasetti Design Museum. Piero Fornasetti is an extremely valued artist and designer in Italy, who is famous for his unique artistic vision and supernatural imagination. As a designer, he also created a decoration brand just in his name Fornasetti, whose works are noted for his almost outrageous imagination and inspiring proficiency and skill. Usually, his design is not only esthetic, but also useful and functional.

 

The museum is not only a place for exhibiting works of design, but also an important landmark for inheriting and promoting the very sprits of Italian design. By virtue of this visit, students have felt the works’ permeating imagery and fantasy, a kind of surrealistic and marvelous esthetics of the works and designers’ continuous challenge towards traditional design limits. Students also deeply felt the inheritance and creation of Italian design through such a dialogue and communion transcending times.

 

The purpose of the study tour in Italy course series offered by Gengdan International Design Academy is to provide students with an opportunity to study in an immersive way, so much so that they can deeply understand the art, culture and design and personally feel the art atmosphere and design ideas in Italy. Also, Gengdan International Design Academy provides students with a chance of interacting with world-class quality art and design institutions, broadening their horizons, inspiring their creativity and design thought and helping them grasp the creative process, lines of design and developing trends of the industry.

 

 

Contributed by Yang Bo (majoring in Visual Communication)

Edited by Yu Hanyang