We are happy to announce that today – February 24th, 2022 – our Lab member Ziyu Zhou obtained a PhD in Design at the Politecnico di Milano, with the thesis “Meaning-driven Material Education in Design”. Congratulations to our Lab member Ziyu and her supervisor Prof. Valentina Rognoli, for this great achievement!

The dissertation presents a doctoral research on material education in design, which is based on understanding the tremendous undergoing changes in the material world thanks to the technology evolution and designers’ continuous exploration and reinterpretation of materials. It noticed that the exploration of new materials and their characteristics have caught more attention of designers and design educators, and design and material education is developing its own approaches. It answered the research question of ‘what are the new effective changes and phenomena of material education in design, and what are its potentials and values’ by a mixed research methodology.

Supervisor: Valentina Rognoli

Co-supervisor: Manuela Celi

External Reviewers: Owain Pedgley, Markus Holzbach