2012
Thursday
February
16

Professor Ezio Manzini has been awarded the 2012 Sir Misha Black Medal for distinguished services to the design education.

Professor Ezio Manzini, a member ofCittaslow International's Scientific committee, has been awarded the 2012 Sir Misha Black Medal for distinguished services to the design education.
The Sir Misha Black Awards Committee has announced that the 2012 Medal for Distinguished Services to Design Education will be awarded to Professor Ezio Manzini, Italy. The Medal will be awarded on the 8th of March at a Ceremony at the Royal College of Art, London.

For more than two decades Ezio Manzini has been working in the field of design for sustainability.

Most recently, his interests have specifically focused on social innovation, considered as a major driver of sustainable changes, and on what design can do to support it. He started and currently coordinates, DESIS, an international network of schools of design and other design-related organisations specifically active in the field of design for social innovation and sustainability (desis-network.org).

In addition to his continuous involvement in the design for sustainability arena, he has explored and promoted design in different fields, including, Design of Materials in the 80′s; Strategic Design in the 90′s (creating a Masters Degree Course in Strategic Design in the Politecnico in Milan); and since 2000 starting specific courses in Service Design in the same institution.

Ezio Manzini
Throughout his professional life he has taught and carried out research at thePolitecnico di Milano where he directed several national and international research projects and where he coordinated the Unit of Research DIS-Design and Innovation for Sustainability, the Doctorate in Design and, recently, DES: (Design dei Servizi) the Centre for Service Design in the Indaco (Industrial Design, Arts, Communication Department).

Parallel to this, he has also been director and vice-president of Domus Academy, Italy (in the 90′s) and Chair Professor of Design under the Distinguished Scholars Scheme at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (in 2000). He remains as Visiting Professor at the Politecnico di Milano, Honorary Guest Professor at the Tongji University, in Shanghai, at the Jiangnan University, in Wuxi, China, and at the UFRJ, (Rio de Janeiro Federal University) in Brazil and Distinguished Visiting Professor, at Parsons, the New School for Design, in New York. He has received important prizes in Italy including two Compasso d'Oro Design Prizes, given by ADI-Associazione per il Design Industriale, and, recently, the Premio per l'innovazione (Prize for Innovation), given by the Ministero dell'Innovazione Italiano (the Italian Innovation Ministry). He has received honorary titles in several countries including Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts at The New School of New York and at Goldsmiths College, University of London; Honorary Professor at the Glasgow School of Art; Fellow at the Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Society at the University of Melbourne.

He is a member of the Advisory Board of Schools including the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands and of associations including the Città Slow Association, Italy. He has also served on the advisory boards of several design
journals including The Journal of Design Research (Netherlands); The Design Journal (UK) and the International Journal of Design (Taiwan).

Professor Manzini has been widely published in distinguished journals and several papers can be found on sustainable-everyday.net and desisnetwork.org.
Professor Sir Christopher Frayling who represents the College of Medallists on the Sir Misha Black Awards Committee has commented:

"Ezio Manzini has, for as long as many of us can remember, been at the forefront ofinnovative thinking and practice in design. In the expansive 1980s, from his base at Domus in Milan, he provided much-needed frames of reference for industrial and product designers – when they needed them most. Since then, he has led international research into and through design for sustainability, making this important theme accessible, inspirational – and urgent. Ezio Manzini is a very gifted educator, with the unusual ability to put ideas over to design practitioners and students alike. He is a very worthy recipient of this year's Misha Black Medal, with just the right mix of talents. He has made 'design and sustainability' very visible on the international scene, and for that alone he deserves the Award."

Source: http://www.cittaslow.org.uk