Scuola di Design e Moda - Master in Design e Moda - Domus Academy

Domus Academy was founded in response to a paradox.
For many decades, the Italian design industry had become a dominant international influence, producing the most interesting and sought after designs in the world. Yet, except for apprenticeships and mentoring that happened in the studios of individual designers, in Milan no one was teaching design in a formalized way. There were no institutions
specifically dedicated to design offering postgraduate courses.

In 1983, Maria Grazia Mazzocchi saw this as a tremendous opportunity to fill the design education void. So, along with Pierre Restany (one of the most important art critics of the 20th century), Alessandro Mendini, Valerio Castelli, Alessandro Guerriero and Andrea Branzi she founded Domus Academy.
From the very beginning, Domus Academy was designed to be a unique institution. The founders envisioned a school where different cultures and experiences would meet and exchange, and where education and research would be closely integrated. They planned a center that would promote an open environment conducive to reflection and criticism, and that would bring together students and companies to pursue real-world projects on the most important aspects of contemporary life.

First and foremost, Domus Academy is a post-graduate school, offering one-year master courses in a wide variety of design specializations.
It has also always been an international school, open to students and teachers from all over the world. And right from the start, the school has attracted a highly diverse international enrollment.
In addition to students from Italy, Domus Academy has drawn students from Japan, Korea and other Far East nations, from North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Australia and the Middle East. This rich international student diversity added a real richness to the school and spurred a dynamic exchange of ideas and a healthy intellectual confrontation that are still a hallmark of Domus Academy.

During the first years Domus Academy invited leading designers such as Sottsass, Mendini, Trini Castelli, Santachiara, Starck, Hosoe, Bellini, Castiglioni, Bonetto, Magistretti, Munari. The stream of ideas they brought with them was very fruitful in encouraging a collaboration between the designers who operated in the wellestablished product design field and those operating in the new design disciplines.
In addition to the above-mentioned design leaders, Domus Academy invited more than five hundred visiting professors to hold lectures, and organised seminars in various countries.

Strongly rooted in Italy, Domus Academy works in an international perspective, in order to enrich, spread and update the design culture. Domus Academy is a real point of connection between design, fashion and management culture.