Design Campus - Calenzano
93 Via Sandro Pertini – Tel. 055 2757079
Teaching and research activities in the field of Design take place at the Calenzano campus, which is housed in a modern building comprising teaching spaces, laboratories and staff rooms. The facility is complemented by a lecture theatre and an exhibition space.
The campus hosts the Bachelor’s degree programme in Industrial Design (L-4), the Master’s degree programme in Design (LM-12 B052), a Master’s in Fashion System Design (L-12 B220), the Design for Sustainability Laboratories (LDS), the Ergonomics and Design Laboratories (LED), the Design Modelling Laboratories (LMD), the Reverse Engineering and Interaction Design Laboratories (LREID) and the Design and Architecture Video Laboratories (LVIDA), as well as the D.ITALY Research Unit (Design Made in Italy and Italian Style) .
It is also home to the Design Museum and the Minicar Design Museum.
Inaugurated on 23 October 2012, the building stands out in the Florentine industrial plain, home to many leading companies in the ‘Made in Italy’ sectors. Amidst solid and void elements, glass walls and metal cladding, accentuated by the unmistakable red colour of the façade, the word ‘Design’ appears.
The building’s foundation stone, located at the entrance, comes from the paving of the community school founded by Don Lorenzo Milani in San Donato.
The architecture is based on a proposal by Elio Di Franco, developed into a design by Galileo Pacini, whilst the interior design is by Alessandra Rinaldi.
The complex spans five levels: two underground floors used for car parking and three above-ground levels.
Inside, there are laboratories, teaching rooms, a lecture theatre, a roof garden, a design café, residential and service areas, and the Design Museum dedicated to the history and evolution of Italian design (a project supported by the Anna Querci Foundation), all covering a total of 4,500 square metres.
It is, therefore, not merely a centre for teaching and research, but a veritable ‘citadel of design’.
During the opening days, two ‘lectio magistralis’ were held: one by Philippe Daverio (‘Dialogues on Design’) and one by Remo Buti (‘VarieEtà’).
Last update
31.08.2026