SFD Held “One Hour Design Museum” Lecture Series

Recently, the School of Future Design of Beijing Normal University held the first lecture of the “One Hour Design Museum” series for master students of the school. Luca Fois, one of the founders of Milano Design Week, shared and discussed “he driving force of design exhibitions”. The lecture was moderated by Ms. Luo Yi, the curator and museum consultant, who is in charge of the Future Design Seed Fund Project “Chinese Design Research in European and American Museums” of Beijing Normal University.

At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Luca Fois shared his views on the field of children’s design from the perspective of children’s toy design, based on a child-oriented and communicative design approach. He believed that children are the future of the world and design for children is a part of future design. At the same time, he introduced to the students the international master program of children’s toy design at Politecnico di Milano, giving a detailed introduction of the background of the program, the basic training situation, the training model of university-enterprise cooperation, the training concept of multidisciplinary cross-collaboration and the career path of the graduates.

After that, Prof. Luca Fois focused on the Zona Tortona, an important constituent area of Milano Design Week. Zona Tortona was once an old industrial area located along Milan’s canals. In the 1990s, Milan began a large-scale urban planning transformation, and all the factories formerly located in Zona Tortona were transferred to other areas, while the then emerging creative industries entered the area. Artists, designers and other creative workers moved in, and the old factories and old buildings in the area were transformed into galleries, design studios, bookstores and other art exhibition spaces. These unique scenes full of history contrast with the high-end, cutting-edge creative design of the area, and the Tortona district gradually becomes a bridge between the past and the future, tradition and modernity.

Prof. Luca Fois showed the students such a vibrant art gathering place from the previous life of Tortona Creative Park, the reasons of its foundation, the design connotation of the logo and the mode of holding the design week. He said that Milano Design Week is a bottom-up organization system, which is the opposite of the top-down way of organizing events in China. Top-down organization allows for a more structured event and more efficient advancement, but it can be lacking in vitality. This requires Chinese design and creative workers to find a balance between the two and keep exploring new ideas and perspectives.

At the end of the lecture, Prof. Luca Fois emphasized that design is not about imitation, but about highlighting features. For the organization of Urban Design Week, it is crucial to utilize and integrate local characteristics. Culture is always at the center of all human activities, and the most distinctive local cultures of each place are the most valuable design assets.

The “One Hour Design Museum” lectures are academic lectures presented by the the School of Future Design of Beijing Normal University, which is organized by the Future Design Seed Fund Project “Chinese Design Research in European and American Museums”, inviting experts from overseas design museums, universities and institutions (biennales, triennales, design awards). Through the series of lectures, we hope to investigate Chinese design in overseas museums and discuss the future direction of Chinese contemporary design and museums.

Review link：https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1KR4y197rf/?vd_source=2523ba88456a13477efaa961c051afa5