PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – abandoned or underused spaces that return to being places for the community. A city told through the voices of those who live there. A lesson that continues even when the classroom empties. And finally, a medieval masterpiece that finds new tools to be understood. It is with this plurality of experiences that the University of Palermo enters the catalogue of the ADI Design Index 2026, with four projects selected by the ADI – Association for Industrial Design. Three are developed within the Department of Architecture, between research and teaching; the fourth is a specialist thesis dedicated to the cultural heritage of the University. The selection was presented at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, where the 340 projects selected throughout Italy were announced for the 2026 edition, divided into 14 categories. For UniPa is an excellent result that puts together research, experimentation, training and territory and that brings four experiences of the University in the path leading to the prestigious Compasso d’Oro ADI, scheduled in the spring of 2028, which represents the most international recognition for the production and design quality within the framework of architecture and contemporary design. From OSMOSI, who has studied and experimented new ways to transform subused spaces into cultural infrastructures of proximity, to the Museum of the City of the Diffused World, which brings the stories of communities into the streets of Palermo; from Instant Handbook, which uses artificial intelligence to make a lesson available to those who were not in the classroom, up to the project on the wooden ceiling of the Sala Magna of Palazzo Chiaro design, which builds new tools to read a complex heritage:.
The four selections tell a dynamic presence of the University of Palermo that crosses the different fields of research, teaching, digital innovation and cultural heritage, with projects developed together with institutions, cultural enterprises, territorial partners and young designers trained in the University. “The presence of four projects of the University of Palermo in the ADI Design Index 2026 – emphasizes the rector of the University of Palermo, Massimo Midiri – is a result of great importance, that returns the image of a lively university and able to express high-level skills in different areas, putting them in relation with each other and with the territory. It is particularly important that this selection value projects born from national research programmes, innovative teaching experiences and paths dedicated to the valorisation of cultural heritage: different areas that testify to the strong transversality of UniPa and its ability to create connections between research, training, innovation, culture and society”.
– photo press Rettorato Unipa –
(ITALPRESS).
