Politecnico di Torino
Politecnico di Torino was founded in 1906 and has its roots in the Technical School for Engineers created in 1859. It is internationally ranked among the most important universities in Europe for engineering and architecture studies, with 39,700 students (out of which 20% are international students coming from more than 100 different countries).
Politecnico is a center of excellence for education and research in engineering, architecture, design and planning and it works in close cooperation with the socio-economic system. It is a comprehensive Research University where education and research complement each other and create synergies to address the needs of the economic system, of the local community and, above all, of its students.
Politecnico is committed to a strong internationalization process of its teaching, research and technology transfer activities: not only does it work in cooperation with the best universities and research centers in world, but it has also been signing agreements and contracts with important international corporations, as well as local businesses, meaning to be for the latter a focal point for innovation.
Politecnico di Torino CULTURALITY TEAM
Elena Dellapiana
Elena Dellapiana, Architect, PhD, is Full Professor of Architecture and Design History in the Department of Architecture & Design at the Politecnico di Torino (Italy). She is a scholar of architecture, town and design history of the nineteenth and twentieth century. She is one of the authors of Storia dell’architettura italiana: L’Ottocento, ed. A. Restucci (Milan: Electa, 2005); Made in Italy. Rethinking a Century of Italian Design eds. K. Fallan and G. Lees Maffey (Bloomsbury: 2013). Among her publications: Il design della ceramica in Italia 1850-2000 (Milan: Electa, 2010), Il design degli architetti italiani 1920-2000, with F. Bulegato (Milan: Electa, 2014), Una storia dell’architettura contemporanea, with G. Montanari (Torino: Utet, 2015-2020). She recently edited Museographie. Musei in Europa negli anni tra le due guerre, with M.B. Failla and F. Varallo (Sagep: Genova 2020) and Bruno Zevi. History, Criticism and Architecture after WWI, with M. Cassani Simonetti (Franco Angeli: Milano 2021; her latest book is Il Design e l’invenzione del Made in Italy, (Einaudi: Torino 2022), a book awarded as the best 2023 book in the category “Visual Studies” by the American Association of Italian Studies and candidate for the “Compasso d’Oro” award 2024.
Member of the board of “Architectural Heritage” PhD, Politecnico di Torino.
Past president of “Torino Urban Lab”, an agency commissioned by the city of Turin and the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo (Banca Intesa) to communicate the processes of urban transformation in the metropolitan area.
She is the founder and coordinator of the “Centro Studi sulla storia del design in Piemonte” and director (with Giampiero Bosoni and Jeffrey Schnapp) of the magazine “AIS/Design Journal”, focused on design History and organ of the Italian Design Historians Association (AIS/Design).
Silvia Barbero
Silvia Barbero’s research is focused on sustainability through a systemic design approach. With a European PhD in Productive Systems and Industrial Design at Politecnico di Torino and Lund University, she has branched out to work in the circularity of industrial processes and territorial enhancement. She is Vice-Rector for PoliTO communication and promotion, and in 2024, she co-founded the Systemic Design Lab (https://www.systemicdesignlab.it/). She has been president-elect of the International Systemic Design Association (https://systemic-design.org) since 2018. She teaches courses in “Environmental Product Requirements” for the bachelor’s degrees in Design and Communication and in Sustainable Design for the Food System; “Open Systems” for the master’s degree in Systemic Design; and “Design for sustainable and circular systems” at the PhD in Design and Technology at Politecnico di Torino. She collaborated to define the new three-year degree in Sustainable Design for the Food System with the University of Parma and the new PhD in Design and Technology at the Department of Architecture and Design. She is responsible for several competitive types of research at the European (H2020, Erasmus+, Interreg Europe, EIT), national (PNRR: PE11 MICS and CN Agritech) and regional levels. She is the author of numerous books, papers in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and reviewed international conference proceedings.
Marco Bozzola
Architect, PhD in Technological Innovation for Architecture and Industrial Design, associate professor in design at Politecnico di Torino. His research field is in the design for crafts and territory, design for cultural heritage and packaging design. He is a lecturer in “Concept Design” and “Design for Cultural Heritage” at the bachelor degree Course in Design and Communication at Politecnico di Torino, where he also teaches “Designing Diversity. Theories, Policies, Practices for Inclusion” and “The project for Cultural Heritage” at the PhD in Design and Technology, as part of which he is a member of the steering and updating committee.
He has been delegate for Orientation for the degree course in Design and Visual Communication at the Politecnico di Torino and from 2018 he is the academic referent for International Mobility for the design courses and member of the International Mobility Management Committee. In 2023-24 he has been Rector’s contact person for the enhancement of Politecnico’s identity/brand image and is currently the Communication referent for the Department of Architecture and Design.
He is the author of several publications on national and international books and magazines, in particular on the themes of design for cultural heritage and packaging design.
Cristian Campagnaro
Cristian Campagnaro, PhD, is a full professor in Design at Politecnico di Torino. He is the coordinator of the Politecnico di Torino centre “Polito for the Social” and the degree programs in Design. He teaches Scenario Design, Design for Social Impact, and Food Social Design.
He focuses his research on design for sustainability, design for social inclusion, and design for participatory processes. On these topics, he is the author of essays and oversees and conducts teaching activities, community engagement processes, and participatory workshops involving students, policymakers, public and private social operators, as well as citizens, fragile and not.
In 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2023, he was selected for the ADI DESIGN INDEX in the field of social design, thanks to projects on homelessness, motor disability, circular economy, and food poverty. Since 2014, he has been coordinating the “Crafting Beauty” lab, aimed at experimenting with new models of social inclusion and adult marginalisation contrast. Since 2015, he has been coordinating “ALIMENTA”, a system action with a focus on access to food in Turin dormitories, funded by the Fondazione Progetto Arca Onlus. Since 2017, he has been scientific director of the “Polito Food Design Lab”, which supports research and teaching on Food Waste, Food security and Food safety.
Cristina Coscia
Associate Professor in Real Estate Appraisal at the Politecnico di Torino – Department of Architecture and Design. Architect, Ph.D. in “Real Estate”, a specialist in “History, analysis and evaluation of Cultural Heritage” at the Politecnico di Torino. Member of “Commissione Disciplina Studenti” (AFIS-until December2023); Member of the research group at the Real Estate Observatory of the City of Turin (OICT) and, since April 2024 component of the research group (Local unit Politecnico di Torino, Italy) of the Horizon2020 project “CULTURALITY – CULTUral heritage in RurAL remote areas for creative tourism and sustainabilITY (2024-2028). An active member of SIEV – Italian Society of Real Estate Evaluation. Past President of the Order of Architects of Turin (April-June 2021), vice-President of the Order of Architects of Turin (2017-March 2021), member of the Architecture Foundation. Research areas include the economic enhancement of Cultural Heritage, evaluation of projects’ economic and financial feasibility, models and approaches for analyzing demand and preferences in cultural consumption and activities. Teaching activities at the Politecnico di Torino in the three-year course “Architecture’, in the Master’s degree programs ‘Architecture for Heritage’ and ‘Design and Communication”. Past member of the Doctoral College in “Architectural and Landscape Heritage”, today a member of the Doctoral College in “Architectural Heritage”.
Ali Filippini
Ali Filippini, PhD in Design Science at the Iuav University of Venice, is research fellow (RTDa) at Politecnico di Torino DAD (Department of Architecture and Design) where he teaches History of visual communication and design. His research areas include contemporary design, history of exhibit design and retail (between the publication, the book Il negozio conteso, 2021). He was appointed in the 2021 vice president of AIS/Design (Italian association of design historian). Is editor-in-chief of the magazine Ceramica e Arti Decorative del Novecento and member of the scientific committee of the review and member of the Study Center on the History of Design in Piemonte and Osservatorio sul Design in Piemonte (MIRA). Recently, his research investigates the relationships between the history of the Piedmont area, archival heritage and cultural enhancement of project archives.
Claudio Germak
Full professor of Design at the Politecnico di Torino and Coordinator of the Doctorate “Design and Technology. People, environment, systems”. He is a scholar of the production systems related to industry and craft, on which he published articles in magazines and monographs, curated exhibitions and installations, and conducted competitive and private research. Editor of “Man at the centre of the project” (U.Allemandi & C, Turin, 2008), where he developed new methodologies of design service and product for territories valorisation and development, shared spaces with a high degree of accessibility. Since 2000, he has worked in the research field of cultural heritage, in particular on the focus of design contribution to craft communities through professional training, the foundation of local production centres, museum merchandising and master classes to promote Italian excellence craft production in Asiatic regions (ICE, The Italian Institute for Foreign Trade). Since 2014, he has moved his interests to digital and interactive experiences for the Museum, also winning the Digital Think in Award (Maxxi Rome Foundation, 2015) with the project Virgil, a court robot (with TIM Italy and Terre dei Savoia Association).
Today, he leads the UXDPoliTO team, which consists of active researchers in the development of design and evaluation techniques for HCD, UXD, HMI, and ID for different sectors of production.
He is a consultant for Horizon Europe Cluster 2, “Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society”, and EU Ecodesign_biocompatible design of sustainable products (ESPR). Past president 2018-2021 of the scientific association SID Italian Design Society.
Xiaoxu Liang
Xiaoxu Liang is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino. Her research expertise lies in the utilization of cutting-edge digital tools and analytical frameworks to document contemporary urban transformations and assess associated risks. Xiaoxu specializes pioneering approaches, such as empowering minority groups with digital tools, in comprehensive cultural heritage management.
