OVERVIEW

Connected to the other historical, artistic and methodological subjects of the master,  the Course of Theory and History of Design integrates and expands the preparation of the students that take a contemporary orientation inside the planned educational program.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The purpose of the course is to give a deeper knowledge of the theory and of the history of the design. Pointing out the past design’s development, it’s possible to understand how the present culture can create the design of our time.

The awareness of the value of the means and of the products of the past design offers the instruments for a better understanding of the quality of the present design.

TEACHING METHODS

Taught class with Power Point

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Program for the students of 6 credits’ course

Throughout the analysis of the main artistic and avant-garde movements and the exploration of the trends inspired by the various aesthetical experiences of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, the course will be focused on the evolution of design’s mean and, particularly, on the development of the interior design.

The different periods of this process will be focused throughout the following points:

. Design’s means and origin

. The beginning of the design: historical, social, economic events and the pioneers (Crystal Palace, London 1861; the Thonet creations; the Shaker furnishings; the Biedermeier style; the aesthetic revolution of the Arts & Crafts)

. Eclecticism and exoticism in Italy and in Europe in the second half of the Nineteenth century

. The different international trends of the Modern Decorative Art and the Italian Liberty

. The Wiener Werkstatte’s e  Werkbund’s experiences

. The Paris International Exhibition of 1925 and Monza Biennales

. The advant-garde movements (De Stijl, Russian Constructivism, Bauhaus)

. The Modern Movement and the Italian Rationalism

. The US Machine Age (from the Twenties to the Fourties)

. The ocean liners’ interior design

. The after war period e and the Made in Italy

. The Sixties and the Seventies: the Radical movement and the revolution of the domestic landscape

. The Post-Modern

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography for the students of 6 credits’ course

The handbook for the course is the following: Renato De Fusco, Storia del design, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2009.

According with the professor the student must select one of the arguments of the course and choose one of the books from the following list:   

. A. Pansera, Storia e cronaca della Triennale, Longanesi, Milano 1978

. V. Gregotti, Il disegno del prodotto industriale. Italia 1860-1980, Electa, Milano 1986

. M. Cristina Tonelli Michail, Il design in Italia 1925-1943, Editori Laterza, Roma-Bari 1987

. A. Pansera, Il design del mobile italiano dal 1946 a oggi, Editori Laterza, Roma-Bari 1990

. AA.VV., Il mobile del Novecento, Istituto Geografico De Agostini, Novara 1991

. I. De Guttry, M.P. Maino, Il mobile italiano degli anni Quaranta e Cinquanta, Editori Laterza, Roma-Bari 1992

. AA.VV., Torino 1902. Le arti decorative internazionali del nuovo secolo, cat. mostra Torino 1994

. I. De Guttry, M.P. Maino, Il mobile liberty italiano, Editori Laterza, Roma-Bari 1994

. F. Benzi, Il Liberty in Italia, cat. mostra Chiostro del Bramante, Roma 2001

. F. Benzi, Il Déco in Italia, cat. mostra Chiostro del Bramante, Roma 2004

. I. De Guttry, M.P. Maino, Il mobile déco italiano 1920-1940, Editori Laterza, Roma-Bari 2006

. G. Bosoni, Il modo italiano, cat. MART, Rovereto 2007

. F. Mazzocca, Novecento. Arte e vita in Italia tra le due guerre, cat. cat. Musei San Domenico, Forlì 2013

. M.F. Giubilei, V. Terraroli, La forza della modernità. Arti in Italia 1920-1950, cat. Fondazione Ragghianti, Lucca 2013

. F. Mazzocca, Liberty. Uno stile per l’Italia moderna, cat. Musei San Domenico, Forlì 2014

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MATTEO FOCHESSATI (President)

LEO LECCI

PAOLA VALENTI

LESSONS

Class schedule

THEORY AND HISTORY OF DESIGN

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Oral exam

Exam schedule