IED Graduates Use Design to Address Social and Environmental Challenges
Master of Arts projects tackle urban inequality, climate vulnerability, and labor rights through innovative design solutions.
1Design as a Mediator for Common Goods
IED's Master of Arts programs position design as a crucial mediator between communities and common goods, addressing both material and immaterial resources. The Design X Commons theme elevates graduate projects beyond traditional product development, focusing on systemic challenges like climate change and urban inequality. Students employ research-driven and speculative design approaches to create solutions with global adaptability. This educational model emphasizes commoning—the collective management of resources—as fundamental to contemporary design practice, challenging industrial norms.
2Coastal Erosion Solution with Marble Waste
Michele Martelloni's 'Systemic Reef' at IED Milano tackles coastal erosion along the Apuan shoreline using innovative material science. The project reimagines industrial tetrapods as porous, modular structures that dissipate wave energy while fostering marine life. A key innovation involves integrating waste marble powder from local quarries into the structural mixture. Martelloni developed a five-step protocol for systemic coastal management, demonstrating how design can bridge territorial knowledge with ecological urgency. This approach transforms industrial byproducts into environmental solutions.
3Cultural Resistance Through Visual Communication
Ana Sofia Camacho's 'En la Olla' project from IED's Visual Communication program celebrates Latin American cultural identity as resistance. The work organizes everyday expressions into a collection of objects functioning as both artifacts and manifesto. By elevating street culture and local traditions, Camacho challenges the dehumanizing legacy of colonization in creative practice. The project demonstrates how design can reinterpret structural violence through joyful subversion, making marginalized narratives visible in contemporary visual culture.
4Reclaiming Urban Water Access in Milan
Olga Matsiuk's 'Where did water go?' addresses Milan's water accessibility crisis through temporary public bathing installations. Centered around an underused fountain in Piazza Kaisserlian, the project frames water access as a human right. The design serves as political resistance against urban privatization while reactivating neglected public spaces. By creating community gathering points around water, Matsiuk advocates for reopening closed swimming facilities, demonstrating how design can influence urban policy and spatial justice.
5Street Transformation in Rome's Tuscolano District
Elena Bicocchi's 'Strada domestica' at IED Roma revitalizes Via Valesio through community-focused urban design. The project reclaims roadway space from automobiles, extending domestic qualities into public areas. By opening residential courtyards and adding flexible 'habitat' structures, Bicocchi creates a resident-managed civic center. This approach transforms a marginalized urban area through participatory design, demonstrating how streets can become extensions of home rather than mere transit spaces, particularly in underserved neighborhoods.
6Exposing Fashion's Hidden Labor Injustices
Ruby Berryman's 'Invisible Hands' at IED Firenze investigates human rights violations in Tuscany's luxury fashion supply chain. The project highlights immigrant worker conditions behind 'Made in Italy' labels through material research. Berryman created Mani Visibili, an online platform offering legal resources and organizing tools for workers. This design intervention reveals fashion's complex social dynamics while providing concrete support mechanisms, showing how textile design can address systemic labor exploitation in creative industries.
7Supporting Youth Migration Decisions
Anna Leccese's 'Punto di Ritorno' at IED Torino examines youth migration between southern and northern Italy. The interaction design project assists young Apulians considering returning home after studying or working elsewhere. Addressing personal, professional, and emotional factors, the platform guides informed transitions back to home regions. By mapping spatial and social conditions enabling returns, the project demonstrates how design can facilitate complex life decisions shaped by economic disparities between Italian regions.
8Cohousing Solution for Urban Isolation
Virginia Urro's 'COHO MUNITY' at IED Torino transforms a disused industrial site into flexible cohousing. The interior design project retrofits Moncalieri's former manufactory to reduce urban isolation through shared domestic spaces. Modular living units minimize environmental impact while fostering community connections. Urro's approach demonstrates how adaptive reuse of existing buildings can address housing crises more sustainably than new construction, offering models for post-industrial urban regeneration that prioritize social wellbeing alongside architectural innovation.