First Level University Master's Degree

Department of Architecture | University of Florence
Course coordinator Prof. Gianpiero Alfarano

Open enrolment - 2023/2024

update registration deadline 8 January 2024 (12:30 p.m.)

Course

The Master's Course in Sensibility Design for Eco-Footprint at the University of Florence intends to offer new professional stimuli and direction towards new soft skills in the field of design with character to transversal competences for systems and products with high ecological sensitivity.
A course organised with multidisciplinary knowledge and expertise structured to train a professional figure capable of overcoming and giving appropriate specificity to the current roles of assistant, consultant, prescriber as a medium between technological innovations and design.

A subtle but substantial way of addressing contemporary and future issues of design for man and planet

The Master's course intends to meet the growing demand to qualify and give recognisable professional skills in kjmodo well distinguishable from the relationship and project assistance roles practised today with spontaneous and voluntary training.

The growing demand for new sensitivities

On the part of the companies, the need is becoming more evident to have as interlocutors, between the production system and the designers, some specific figures with very particular and above all very qualified knowledge who can direct the information in both output and input directions between the company and the world of finishing product applications to the best end.

Subtle interventions can change a lot of our perception if we pay attention to them

These instances lead to the gradual increase of careful attention to soft elements of the project, predisposing substantial revolutions in science and industry. They present the design culture as a field of action in which the unique opportunity to generate new qualities of life and new habitability of the world manifests itself. From the micro generate the macro. With small interventions offer the opportunity for significant changes.

Learning objectives

The Master's training objectives are:

design skills and management of the perceptual, sensory and emotional implications of objects, furnishing products and indoor and outdoor environments;
design skills in the perceptual and technical aspects of the sensory expressiveness of surfaces;
specialised CMF design skills;
ability to analyse, evaluate and select expressive properties designed about the technical characteristics of production;
management of multimedia tools and software for digital interaction, additive modelling and 3D development.

The curriculum offers detailed knowledge and insights into colours, scents, sounds, materials and tastes, with a view to a holistic approach

The Master's course prepares an innovative professional figure in the design field with specific skills in the sensory sensitivity of materials and surfaces. Light, colour, perception and sensoriality are the main elements of which knowledge will be provided to nurture critical thinking and new evaluation techniques in new application processes.
The skills to be acquired refer to the ability to analyse, evaluate, compare and design innovative surface treatments with marked sensitivity to the resulting ecological footprint.
The fields of application of the competencies concern:

Furniture design / Interior design / Exhibition design / Environment design / Interaction design / Lighting design / Product ecology design / Sensorial design / CMF design / Surface design.

A professional profile with a co-creation and design role in companies with a high-quality range and green-oriented companies for the valorisation of resources and the recovery or alternative energy production. This professional figure will be able to work within companies in the industrial product sector, innovative materials, textures and finishes, lighting control and research into the sensorial expressiveness of bio-eco materials, and in professional studios and technical offices in public administration. In the professional studios of industrial design, museum and event design, he will cover the role of designing and directing the technical choices appropriate to the expressive and perceptive results to be obtained. While in professional architectural firms, he/she will support the architectural design of residential, commercial, public, recreational and sports buildings concerning the energy savings obtainable from finishes and for the activation of integrated passive systems for energy production.