POLI.design's new board of directors appointed: Anna Barbara assumes the position of board president

Anna Barbara, Associate Professor in Interior and Spatial Design at the Politecnico di Milano, Scientific Director of the course Olfactive Design and Scientific Director of D|Tank, the think tank of the Department of Design and POLI.design, will chair the Board of Directors of the Society, which counts among its Members the Politecnico di Milano, ADI, AIPi, AIAP and FederlegnoArredo. On the Board of Directors, in addition to Professor Anna Barbara, will sit Simona Belforti (delegated by Member FederlegnoArredo), Antonia Sabina (Vice President ADI Association for Industrial Design) and Marco Tortoioli Ricci (President AIAP). They are joined by Cabirio Cautela, Professor at Politecnico di Milano, Department of Design, and Co-Director of the Design Thinking for Business Observatory at Politecnico di Milano, as well as CEO of POLI.design since May 2022.

Professor Anna Barbara, architect and associate professor in Interior and Spatial Design at the School of Design, Politecnico di Milano, has taught at Tsinghua University, Academy of Art and Design, Beijing (China); Kookmin University, School of Architecture, interior design, at Master Brain 21 Seoul (South Korea); in universities in the USA, France, Thailand, Brazil, Jordan, UAE, India, etc. She was a 2000 Canon Foundation Fellow at Hosei University, Tokyo (Japan). She was Special Mention of Borromini Prize 2001, selected by Archmarathon 2018, selected ADI-Index 2019, Special Mention Fedrigoni Top Award – Large Format Communication 2023.

The relationships between the senses, time, spaces, and design are the main themes he develops in research and design and disseminates in training, lectures, and publications.

He has designed international sensory designs for: Trinity, Pioneer, Panasonic, Ibiden, Honda, Fujitsu, Suruga, Lexus, Toyota, Toyota, Ford, Exmovere, Jadeluck, International Robotics, Fissan, Lancome, Symrise, Guerlain, Cleaf, Venini, AAD of Abu Dhabi, Acell, Natura, Vantone, Vats, etc. in France, China, Japan, USA, Europe, Brazil, UK, UAE, as founder and CEO of Senselab.

She’s author of “Storie di Architettura attraverso i sensi” (Bruno Mondadori, 2000; Postmedia Books, 2018); “Architetture invisibili. L’esperienza dei luoghi attraverso gli odori” (Skira, 2006); “Sensi, tempo e architettura. Spazi possibili per umani e non” (Postmedia Books, 2012); “Sensefulness, nuovi paradigmi per lo Spatial Design” (Postmedia Books, 2019); “Extended Store. How digitalization affects the retail space design”, con Yuemei Ma, (Franco Angeli, 2021) e molte altre pubblicazioni.

In 2021, he launched the first Executive Course in Olfactive Design with POLI.design.

We express our thanks to Matteo O. Ingaramo who has led the company, as General Manager (2009 – 2020), CEO (2020 – 2022) and Chairman of the Board of Directors (2022 – 2023), leading POLI.design to play the role of a bridge between universities, companies, institutions and professional worlds. In particular, he has achieved significant goals in internationalization, with particular focus in China and South America, and in managing the company at a time of crisis such as the pandemic.