Course presentation

Technical, humanistic and design cultures converge in Design for the development of new projects. The Degree Course in Sustainable Design for the Food System (Class L-4) brings together different knowledge and disciplines with the aim of training professionals who are experts in the design of a wide range of tangible and intangible artefacts, with a focus on the food system. The figure of the designer that the course aims to train proposes innovative solutions to the challenges of modern society, thanks to a critical and conscious approach.
The degree course plans to emphasise the potential and currently marginally expressed link between design project culture and the food system, with a look at scenarios of consumption, management, production and systemic circularity. In support of this link, it should be noted that the two universities are involved in the planning of cultural and scientific initiatives for the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/), which aims to promote cooperation between cities that have identified creativity as a strategic element for sustainable urban development. The Network is divided into seven areas corresponding to as many cultural sectors and, specifically, in 2015 Parma was nominated for the gastronomy area, while in 2016 Turin was nominated for the design area.
The main objectives of the Degree Course are related to the training of designers with a solid background in the design method, with an ability to make design choices based on environmental, social and economic sustainability, and with a significant set of technical-scientific tools to support their projects.
The professional figure that this degree prepares is capable of comprehensively and systematically addressing the needs of the manufacturing world in terms of designing new products, processes and systems with a view to economic, environmental and social sustainability. Within the training course, specific attention will be paid to the food system as a whole, which includes not only food products, but also the entire industrial, economic and social ecosystem that gravitates around their elaboration, production, processing, distribution, marketing and consumption.