OPEN CALL: Master in Mobility Design at Istituto Europeo di Design

In a world where mobility is no longer just about transportation but emerges from the dynamic interplay of people, ideas, materials, and systems, IED Torino introduces its new Master’s in Mobility Design. Rethinking Tomorrow’s Connections: a 15-month full-time program starting in November 2025.

The program responds to the urgencies of our time by framing mobility as a relational infrastructure: a living system shaped by environmental flows, human behaviors, digital networks, and evolving social values. It challenges conventional design silos by promoting whole-system thinking, strategic foresight, and ethically grounded design: tools necessary to navigate today’s rapidly shifting urban and planetary ecosystems.

Far from being limited to vehicles or technical systems, mobility is understood here as a transformative space, where infrastructure meets experience, policy meets interaction, and design meets environmental and social responsibility.

Methodology
The program adopts a transdisciplinary approach, combining insights from humanities and social sciences, technology and digital engineering, business innovation and entrepreneurship. It bridges disciplines such as sociology, psychology, interaction design, autonomous systems, service design, product and environmental design, data visualization, and organizational strategy.

Students engage in studio-based learning and project-driven research, developing impact-oriented solutions that span speculative scenarios, tangible services, systemic strategies, and communication tools. Creative thinking is embedded in a collaborative framework that fosters experimentation, critical inquiry, and ethical engagement.

Graduates will be equipped not only with technical skills, but with the vision to lead design initiatives addressing ecological and societal challenges.

Structure
The curriculum unfolds across four overlapping thematic streams:

Mobility Design Skills & Methods: transdisciplinary design tools & methodologies for navigating complexity and acting within dynamic systems.

Small scale mobility: Body, Mind, UX & Interaction: design grounded in human perception, cognition, and interface; understanding the role of the body in motion.

Medium scale mobility: City, Transport & Systems: urban mobility, infrastructural integration, and resilient interconnected systems.

Large scale mobility: Global Chains & Flows: the macro-level dynamics of logistics, migration, digital networks, and planetary interdependence.

Each stream is interconnected, enabling students to work across scales (from personal experience to urban and global systems) and to reimagine movement as a regenerative, inclusive, and future-oriented practice.

Based in Turin, a city historically rooted in Italy’s automotive legacy and now at the forefront of post-industrial innovation, the Master’s program offers a unique context: an ideal living lab for experimentation in dialogue with local institutions, communities, and enterprises.

Who is it for
This program is designed for individuals aiming to become key actors in the future of mobility. It welcomes designers, engineers, urban planners, technologists, and creatives from diverse backgrounds who view mobility as a field through which to specialize, innovate, and expand their practice.

Particularly relevant for those with interests in service design, UX, urban systems, transportation, and emergent technologies, the Master’s supports students in developing both critical perspectives and applied skills to shape more just, resilient, and imaginative forms of movement and connection.

Scientific Coordinators: Wouter Haspeslagh, Lowie Vermeersch
Faculty: Michael Thomson, Michael Kaethler, Paolo Verri, Andrea Sasso, Virgilio Fernandez, Giulia Ceccarelli, Federico Borreani, Costanza Milano, Damiano Gui, Luisa Miolano, Rawad Choubassi

Language: English. Applications now open for scholarships—deadline: June 18, 2025. Visit ied.edu for details.

For further information and application details contact Valeria Venere at v.venere [at] ied.it. For content or pedagogical related questions contact the coordinator Wouter Haspeslagh at w.haspeslagh [at] ied.it