ISIA Firenze - Istituto Superiore Industrie Artistiche

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ISIA Firenze is a university-level institute included in the AFAM - Alta Formazione Artistica Musicale e Coreutica - sector of the Ministry of University and Research that deals with training, research and experimentation in the field of Design. Its educational offerings are divided into three-year courses, two-year specialized courses and master’s degrees in Product and Communication Design. In addition, starting in the 24/25 academic year, ISIA Florence has activated doctoral programs in association with other major universities on topics such as “Service Design for Public Sector,” “Design for Social Change,” “Art, Technology and Perception,” and “Cognitive Design” of which ISIA is the lead institute.

The institute, founded in 1975 with the aim of training new generations of professional designers, is a research-centered university whose activities have always been aimed at substantial innovation as an indescernable mix of form, technology and social analysis. For more than four decades, ISIA Firenze has been preparing its students to become designers in multiple fields with a high level of technical skills, broad flexibility and an aptitude for cross-cutting thinking. ISIA alumni are professionals in the development of innovation processes, are able to put the necessary attention to social, cultural, economic aspects, considering the needs of environmental protection and natural resources.

The ISIA model, well-established over time, features theoretical-practical teaching strongly based on laboratory experience: the lectures of the professors, all well-known designers and professionals working in a wide variety of fields, are supplemented each year by lectures and workshops held by important personalities from the world of design and culture. Access is dependent on an admission test; the courses are, in fact, limited in number to facilitate a direct dialogue with the professors, thus ensuring that the student is followed throughout his or her academic career. Another aspect that characterizes the Institute’s philosophy is the development of projects and paths of applied research: an activity that in recent years has been articulated in real Indirizzi di Ricerca (Research Areas), the LABs, in which faculty and students participate in order to address social and economic challenges and the complexity of the present time. Currently active: Urban Lab, Health Lab, Mars Lab, AI-Lab and Hyde Lab; while the Inclusive Lab, a research address dedicated to the theme of inclusive gender communication, is currently being established.

Having long since become a point of reference, ISIA Firenze has developed relationships with major Italian and international companies in the field of Design and Communication, with prestigious organizations and educational institutions, managing to train some of the best-known designers over the years. Internationalization is promoted both through ad hoc projects with international realities and fostered by the various Erasmus exchanges. In particular, from the collaboration between ISIA Firenze, the “L. Cherubini” Conservatory of Music of Florence and the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, the “Florence Polytechnic of Arts and Design” is being established, a pole that unites the three different Florentine AFAM institutes and proposes an interdisciplinary and innovative training model on the national creative and artistic scene.

Institute's projects