Design as the smartness of the ‘room’.

Design as Collective Intelligence is the topic which has been adopted for the 8th International Design Principles and Practices Conference, in order to investigate on the creative conversation happening between the work of the designer and the rest of the society where his/her action is taking place. The philosopher Pierre Lévy wrote extensively on collective intelligence and he stressed on how collective human intelligence is emerging with the raise of a new digital communication environment. The personal intelligence of the designer and the collective knowledge of the society should be considered as dialogically inseparable: the first is the interpreter and the cognitive capacities of a society, while at the same time inheriting and preserving its memory; while the second is reinforcing knowledge, while being open to innovation through the material and the symbolic contribution of its most creative components. This book collects the keynote-speakers’ speeches which introduce us in a not yet concluded discussion, offering several stimuli about some possible declensions of Design as Collective Intelligence: Ethical Design, Spontaneous Design, Sustainable Design, Social Design, Anonymous Design, Communication Design, Cultural Design.