Re-thinking the relationship between design and materials as a dynamic socio-technological innovation process: a didactic case history
The relationship between design and science is deeply-rooted and under constant
evolution, resulting today in the new approach of Bio-design, that offers to designers
the novel possibility of interacting with production processes and participating in the
material design stage, stimulating and directing innovation. Hence emerges the need to
rethink the relationship between design and materials as a dynamic socio-technological
innovation process, in order to foster the implementation of new materials on the market
in an appropriate timeframe and through coherent applications. Such approach is here
illustrated through three experiments carried out within the MaterialdesignLAB involving
new material categories ‑ organic, living, growing ‑ that show how design represents
as a tool for mediation and innovation, and plays a key role in providing meanings in such
a world with many issues to be resolved, but even full of opportunities to catch in order to
create disruptive new ideas