IED – Istituto Europeo di Design has added Connect, an outdoor space with a Duomo view to its via Bufalini campus. The inauguration came as the school’s 142 three-year undergraduate students received their diplomas.
“Connect does away with commonplaces to rethink communal spaces,” commented Danilo Venturi, who became director of IED Firenze in April. “Our vision is interdisciplinary, with a focus on rewriting the rules of cohabitation between humans, technology and nature. That’s why we have turned the school into a sort of garden, with a view of the Duomo.”
The outdoor space also acts as an invitation for tomorrow’s creative industry to connect with an interdisciplinary approach that is capable of taking further steps towards a brighter future.
While sitting in a vintage fauteuil in the new plant-lined space, Danilo Venturi, a political scientist, brand strategist and former director of Polimoda, outlined his focus on three areas that distinguish the creative world today: convergence (“when a work of art is also finance and technology, it becomes an NFT”); disintermediation (“the freedom to create and publish independently, which comes with a warning to be cautious; it depends how you use it”); and awareness (“being conscious of what we produce and consume and bringing about a better balance between humans, technology and nature”).
Moving forward, Venturi and his team are determined to increase the proportion of international students at IED Firenze, which currently has a 60/40 per cent split.
“Enrolment is up for 2023, exceeding pre-pandemic levels, with students registering from America, Africa and Asia. Florence is a driving force in itself. It’s always been a city of ingenuity and design, an open-air museum. By its very nature, Florence is a city of study and it’s the right place to go to in order to start over again. Our students are producers of the future.”
IED – Istituto Europeo di Design
IED – Istituto Europeo di Design was established in 1966 based on the farsightedness of Francesco Morelli. Now IED is the only creative higher education network to have maintained a fully Italian approach over time with innovative projects in the fields of design, fashion, the visual arts and communication through developing forms of learning and new models of viewing the future. Internationally renowned, the IED group has a proudly local outlook with 12 campuses in three countries: Milan, Cagliari, Florence, Rome, Turin, Venice and Como (Italy); Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao (Spain); and Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo (Brazil). The courses range from three- and four-year undergraduate diplomas to postgraduate master programs as well as lifelong learning.
