Anna Pellegrino
Politecnico di Torino
26
LUCE 327 / FORMAZIONE
projects, up to starting new relations with
public commissioning bodies, and an
integrated management of information
and decisional processes.”
Some are proud to point out the progress,
as in the case of Milan and the Polytechnic,
which is the case, in particular, of a professor
who teaches there since many years.
“In Italy the education of lighting designers
is a critical topic”, Maurizio Rossi, professor
of the School of Design of the Polytechnic
University of Milan Bovisa, states. “Even
though our country is the second most
important manufacturer of lighting fixtures in
Europe, in Italy there are no graduate courses
dedicated specifically to the Lighting project.
This condition, in Italy, does not depend on
the scarce number of professors who teach
courses in Lighting engineering in other
graduate courses, but involves the competent
ministry, with which a coordinated initiative
should be carried out by the manufacturers
associations, Assil and Assoluce, with the
support of Aidi and Apil. With the current laws,
to start new graduate courses is practically
impossible. In fact, the professors who teach
this subject, teach Thermodynamics, Electronic
engineering and only some teach Design.”
The institute where Maurizio Rossi is a
professor is the exception that proves the rule.
He teaches at the School of Design a
technical-scientific-cultural outpost, with
excellent credentials: in fact, in the 2018
QS World University Ranking, the school
was fifth on a global scale, and the first out
of the public universities.
“Starting back in 2003,” Rossi continues,
“we started a high-level education post-
graduate master-course in Lighting Design
& LED Technology, in English. 70 per cent
of the participants come from abroad and we
had to enforce a closed number of students
in order to guarantee a high level of education,
organized in two classes per year.”
In fact, we have a large number of students.
The master-course receives over 150
applications a year from industrial and
professional contexts, from all over the world.
“With regard to participation and positioning,
the numbers of our master-course are similar
if not better than analogous courses at Parsons
New York, UCL London, KTH Stockholm and
Hochschule Wismar,” the professor concludes
proudly. “The reason of this success lies in the
strong polytechnic characteristic that we gave
the course from the very beginning. Before
introducing the students of the courses
to the project culture, we tackle the scientific
and technological aspects, which are updated
on the basis of inputs we receive from the
industrial world.”
From the Milan Polytechnic to the Turin
Polytechnic, the distance is short. However,
there are many differences, especially with
regard to the reference manufacturing context.
The presence of the leading lighting design
companies in the former case, and a context
of medium and small sized companies
in the latter. A difference that inevitably
is felt, also with regard to the relation
between the university and the territory.
“The manufacturing context in Turin,”
as Anna Pellegrino, professor at the
department of Energy of the Turin Polytechnic,
who has been teaching Lighting engineering
since many years in the graduate course
of Architecture, explains, “consists mainly
of small and medium sized companies. This
datum is also true for the professional future
of our students, who are increasingly attracted
by internship experiences abroad, in Holland
and Germany in particular. Nevertheless,
in the workshops for students in Architecture
we can count on the presence of operators
and technicians from the manufacturing sector.
These are not courses that are planned with
the companies in the sector or professional
associations, but from our own initiatives
to provide students with operative instruments
to find future employment. Unfortunately,
when we speak of a gap between demand
and supply in the lighting design sector, we
must also bear in mind the manufacturing
context, where the universities are located.”
Apart from the context, teaching Lighting
engineering at the Turin Polytechnic has
a consolidated history handed down over the
years, and it is taught in the graduate course
of Thermodynamics and Technical Engineering,
and at times also in Design. It is a university
that keeps strong ties with the territory of
reference, in particular with Town Councils
dealing with Lighting design projects for the
cultural heritage, urban spaces and monument
buildings.
“Certainly, we also work outside the context
of the area of Turin,” the professor of the
Polytechnic continues, “as can be seen in
the workshops that were held in Taormina
for the Lighting design project of the
archeologic park of Isola Bella or for the Schisò
castle in Giardini-Naxos, Messina; or, near
us in Turin, for the lighting design projects
for the Reggia of Venaria Reale.”
Overcoming the limitations of traditional
teaching and competition among universities:
here is a positive example, the university of
Roma Tre. In fact, in the faculty of Architecture
there is a master course in Lighting design,
which was started about fifteen years ago
by Corrado Terzi, and the two faculties of