The use of places and the abuse of nature have produced unprecedented historical and natural transformations, requiring a rethinking of human dwelling conditions. The role of design is to shape spaces, that shape the human experience. By determining the relationship of people to spaces, objects and services based on psychological and physical parameters, it can improve the quality of life.

From a psychological perspective, the way to improve people’s wellbeing is to improve their cities. According to environmental and architectural psychology as well as neurosciences, a human-centred design offers stimulating perspectives to the creation of a new future model that we can call the city of care, based on welcoming spaces, objects and services resilient, accessible and inclusive for all people.

The course will promote knowledge and creativity as major bases of human communities, endorsing care as a guide attitude to fragile, unacceptable and rejected aspects of individuals and communities, also taking into account the particular scenario which we are living nowadays due to the sanitary emergency.

Starting from the point of view of the design disciplines with an interdisciplinary perspective, psychological wellbeing will be addressed, looking at different variables including socio-economic and environmental determinants in a wide perspective. Sleeping experience will be analysed as a key indicator of health, along with social participation both online and offline, looking at the urban spaces of socialisation. The course will possibly interact with research experiences carried out within the PhD school.

In order to take up the challenge that the urban dimension of the future poses to contemporary design (from interior, to product and services), the course aims to teach students to integrate an increasingly in-depth knowledge of behavioural aspects. The expected result is to improve the design process and manage the intersection with other disciplinary fields - philosophy, psychology, anthropology - to increase the intelligence of what surrounds us and improve our wellbeing.

Besides the texts listed in the Bibliography, further indications will be given during the course.