Design For All
Participatory lecture
Thursday, March 9 at 6:00 pm CT
Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago
The Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, in collaboration with Design Museum Chicago, presents an intensive participatory lecture led by the collective Design For All Italia, presenting their design practice in relation to inclusion and diversity. DFA promotes a design for all people, a practice that is inclusive and holistic, and which values individuality, considering human diversity as part of the design process.
The day will provide theoretical and practical content leading to the full and proper awareness of human diversity in today’s society according to the Design for All principles and approach. It will provide the tools and methods for the practical application of assessments, needs analysis, construction of design requirements, and finally designing solutions for accessibility, social inclusion and equality.
The lecture aims to offer an up-grade in knowledge about human desires that are not always made explicit, adapted to the multiplicity of needs of a vast and articulated community. Moving beyond the idea of “people with disabilities” to a design awareness that considers the population articulated by multiple identities, needs and aspirations, whether emotional or physical.
Program
1. Design for All – A Strategic Approach
Conversation on Design and its role in enabling social inclusion, equity and accessibility of everyday experiences for people with disabilities as well. Insights into the creative and ethical challenge designers face in their critical responsibility to design for human diversity. In recent years it has become a topic of increasing relevance and shows competitive advantages to those who adopt its principles and process.
2. Design for All – The Process for Innovation
Design for All (DfA) is an approach that works on innovation because it requires designers to consider a wide range of needs and create innovative solutions that can meet those needs. The process that will be presented is the tool that designers need to use in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, including disability experts, health professionals, end users, and more, to develop products and services that are truly useful and meet the needs of the real individual.
3. Design for All Italia Association – Training, activities and case histories
The presentation of the Association’s activities, ranging from training to research and consulting activities, is an opportunity to see the principles of DfA applied through significant experiences and projects. The reconstruction of the motivations behind the solutions adopted in product and environment projects give the opportunity to fully understand the approach to design from a DfA perspective.
The event is free. Registration is required. Refreshments will be provided to participants.
Pete Kercher graduated in law from Southampton University before moving to Italy in 1978, where he established a communications and strategic design consulting agency in Italy in 1978 (now KSDC). Executive Officer of BEDA in 1988-94, he then represented Italy on its Board of Directors until 2002. A founder member of EIDD – Design for All Europe in 1993 (President in 2003-7) and of its national counterpart Design for All Italy in 1994 (President 1997-99), he has served as EIDD’s roving Ambassador since 2007. A convinced believer in applying design methods to the strategic challenges generated by today’s complex and continuously changing society, so as to trigger interdisciplinary cross-fertilisation and synergy, he writes articles and manifestos for political, legal and design publications, chairs and addresses conferences, seminars and symposia all over Europe and the rest of the world, provides strategic design consultancy to many international projects, teaches in several schools and universities all over Europe and holds workshops in the application of Design for All and strategic design methods to issues of audience development in the fields of culture, cultural heritage and inclusion. Very active in the field of employing culture for sustainable development, both nationally in Italy and with the European institutions, he was strategic design consultant to Kaunas 2022 European Capital of Culture.
Francesco Rodighiero, studied industrial design at Politecnico di Milano, where he graduated in 2003. Since 1998 he has participated in the organization of several art and Design Exhibitions. After spending several years in Barcelona working on some commercial interiors, he was a tutor at the Domus Academy of Interaction Design. He has exhibited in Milan, London, Berlin and Los Angeles. In 2006, he won a scholarship for the Master’s degree in Bathroom Design at Polidesign in Milan. Between 2010 and 2011 he received major awards such as IF Design Award, Designpreis and Adi Index. In 2016 he is co-founder and secretary of the Hackability association. In 2020 he is president of Design for All Italia.
This program is part of Chi Siamo: (Re)presenting Italian Culture, the theme selected for 2023 by the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago. This year-long series will explore the topics of representation and inclusion in Italian arts, with a specific focus on cross-cultural contamination in contemporary and modern Italy.
The Italian Design Day is an initiative promoted by the Italian Association of Industrial Designers (ADI), the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the worldwide network of Italian Cultural Institutes.