Education & Practice in Open Design. Improving the Learning Experience Through Knowledge Connections

Learning complex disciplines traditionally requires the adoption of equally articulated methods and strategies. Design does not escape this principle, on the contrary it enhances some of its peculiar characteristics: very different skills, often not aligned development and application times, tools complexity, declare an environment where methods and practice had always defined a non-linear educational scenario (Cennamo et al., 2011). The paper discusses the matter while bringing a case study specifically defined with the purpose to test a new educational scenario where a student is put into conditions to experiment the entire Design process by himself, being connected with different competences inside a complex multidisciplinary environment, in order to develop a physical Design solution for a user with disabilities.