Economic Form in Teaching Design, between aesthetics, engineering and technologies. Some recent experiences in design studio

“Ours is an economically oriented age. In earlier times, word-view was more important. Today, nobody can exist without considering economics: we are concerned with economic form. (..) Economic form arises out of function and material. Study of material naturally precedes understanding of function.” (J.Albers, Teaching Form Through Practice, 1928) Some of the most advanced researches and teaching methods in prominent international departments and schools in the field of design, highlight a rising and renewed integrated approach among human and scientific disciplines in the design process; thus is being implemented in the activity of teaching within studio and laboratories of research. In a sustainable approach in the design of artifacts , the integration between the aesthetical and morphological requirements and the opportunity driven by the structural and mechanical behavior of materials, is an interesting field of experimentation and investigation. Through the contribution of researchers from different scientific disciplinary sectors, integrated design allows new strategies of structural control, which can contribute to the elaboration of the forms and are not subordinated to the mere verification subsequent to the definition of the formal model. Through the practice experiments and trials within the Msc in Product Design developed at Sapienza Università di Roma, the aim of the contribution is to enhance the role of technological and structural design by developing an integrated activity between formal design and mechanical behavior of structures. The new technologies and tools, if handled with knowledge, could drive the definition of morphological definition of sustainable elements and product systems for the contemporary habitat.