Faculty of Design
and Art

The Faculty of Design and Art opened in 2002 to tap into the cultural and economic potential that the city of Bolzano, with its particular geographical location, offers. Bozen/Bolzano: a modern meeting place and cultural mix between the Italian and German worlds as well as a natural interface between traditional cottage industries and state-of-the-art technology.

This rich heritage gave birth to the project that spawned the innovative degree course in Design, which ably reflects the ever-changing currents in the design world. It is no longer feasible to simply describe the designer’s work as a part of Product Design or Visual Communication. This profession has opened up and evolved and much of this development is due to the opportunities offered by digital technology, which has contributed to the breaking down of traditional barriers between the two disciplines. Product designers are now also working in the area of interface design, creating web pages. Moreover, in the area of interior design, skills needed for three-dimensional projects as well as those generally regarded as visual communication skills are merging with incredibly exciting results. Designers are no longer solitary figures; they are working more and more within networks where different skills and expertise are fused together, often by the designers themselves. They are no longer “specialists” but rather “generalists” who will have increasingly important social, economic and ecological roles in the future.

The interdisciplinary approach, which has already proved so successful, will continue to be the beacon of excellence that will characterise the future projects offered by the Faculty of Design and Art. As for the 2012/13 academic year, the Faculty will go ahead with its Specialised degree in Design. The following years will see the inclusion of a degree in Art, so that the design and art worlds will be mutually enriched. Teaching the Art degree will not follow traditional ways of teaching – characterised by the Art Academies, – but instead will catapult the value of the creative process onto other cultural spheres, such as, for example, strategic choices in manufacturing processes or political-cultural choices.

http://www.unibz.it/en/design-art