Abstract:

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union initiated the Next Generation Program for economic recovery. In this scenario, Italy has aimed to enhance youth education, training, and employment support through its National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Building on these goals, Politecnico di Milano has launched the "Active Orientation in School-University Transition" program, focusing on reducing university dropouts. The program engages high school students in courses to explore educational pathways, bridge knowledge gaps, and gain insights into future job sectors.

During the 2022/23 academic year, the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano undertook an experimental project in Liceo Scientifico Einstein, dealing with innovative learning spaces and introducing design concepts to non-design students to foster creativity and awareness of the designer's role in modern society. A subsequent experimental project, the subject of this paper, was undertaken in collaboration with Liceo Artistico Boccioni at Politecnico di Milano, within the School of Design, during the academic year 2023/24.

This experimentation embraced a project-based active learning approach to enhance collaboration and critical thinking skills among high school art students while bolstering their design-related competencies. Overseeing this initiative were three professors who guided the educational process. The task was to conceptualise an exhibition space showcasing the high school's 40-year history through student-produced work.

The students were challenged to design their exhibition space, engaging in research, creation, and prototyping activities while emphasising the reuse of materials. Embracing the principles of the circular economy, as advocated by the European Union's Circular Economy Action Plan, involves giving new life to discarded materials, thereby extending their life span. This approach underscores the importance of design-focused upcycling processes.

In addition to rethinking material lifecycles, there is a need to explore innovative processes that align with sustainability, particularly in response to the transient nature of exhibit systems. Meeting these demands requires designers to adhere to sustainable principles throughout the exhibit's lifecycle, including construction, usage, and disposal. Crucially, securing new destinations for utilised materials is essential, ensuring a holistic approach to sustainability in exhibit design. The forty students were asked to develop creative solutions at minimal cost while experiencing active and exploratory activities and fostering peer critique exchange and critical thinking.

The research team adopted surveys before and after the course to understand students' preconceptions, intending to track their evolving perspectives on design. The goal is to investigate students' thoughts on the topics that would be the focus of the course: their views on design and the designer's role, the meaning they attribute to exhibition space and its design, and the professional figures involved in an exhibition design project.

The data collected confirmed a need for initial knowledge of the professionals involved in setting up an exhibition space, but the project activity and the subsequent survey revealed a greater awareness of both the skills required and professional boundaries.

By illustrating the case study, the authors wish to provide valuable references for colleagues committed to similar research in the design field.

Keywords:

Design education, design orientation, design tools, project-based learning, exhibition design .