Distinguished Visiting Professor Ezio Manzini will be awarded the 2012 Sir Misha Black Medal at public ceremony held at the Royal College of Art on March 8th. Professor Ezio Manzini of Italy has been working for more than two decades in the field of design for sustainability and will be awarded the 2012 Sir Misha Black Medal for Distinguished Services to Design Education.
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 of innovative 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.
Ezio Manzini is Professor at the Politecnico di Milano, Honorary Guest Professor at the Tongji University, in Shanghai, at the Jiangnan University, in Wuxi, and at the COPPE-UFRJ, in Rio de Janeiro. Most recently he has been invited as Distinguished Visiting Professor, at Parsons, the New School for Design, in New York,
Most recently, his interests have focused on social innovation as a major driver of sustainable changes and on what design can do to support it. From this perspective he started and currently coordinates, DESIS: an international network of schools of design and other design-related organizations, specifically those active in the field of design for social innovation and sustainability (http://www.desis-network.org).
Throughout his professional life he has served in teaching and reasearch at the Politecnico di Milano where he directed several national and international research projects. He has also coordinated the Unit of Research DIS, the Doctorate in Design and, recently, DES: the Centre for Service Design in the Indaco Department.
In conjunction, he has also been director and vice-president of Domus Academy (in the 90s) and Chair Professor of Design under the Distinguished Scholars Scheme at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (in 2000).
For his work he has received two Compasso d’Oro (Design Prizes), the Premio per l’innovazione (Prize for innovation), and several honorary titles: Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts at The New School of New York and at Goldsmiths College, University of London and Honorary Professor at the Glasgow School of Art.
Finally, he is member of the advisory board of schools (e.g. the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands), associations (e.g. the Città Slow Association) and design journals (e.g. The Journal of Design Research; The Design Journal and the International Journal of Design).
Visit the Misha Black Award site for more information.
