Home Textile for Tomorrow is a project whose objective is the development of potential scenarios in terms of products, markets, features desired and technologies which are related to the home of tomorrow as well their validation through strategies and actions linked to textile industry needs; these products and technologies would be developed in cooperation with Zucchi Group. The Team (composed of five engineers and one designer) was initially asked to define basic the concepts of comfort and wellness,
both in relation to the textile field and the concept of home as structural and emotional entity as well as the idea of a person as an individual and in relation with society, also by identifying possible trends of evolution. The main stakeholder of the project also underlined the need for developing a coherent communication strategy to create a Zucchi culture, that is to say a strong identification of the customer with firm, products and brand, exploiting business’ potentials.
The Team conducted a wide range of research on the state of the art about the main concepts of comfort, wellness, home and person, that were proposed as a guideline for the project, and on perspectives of their evolution within five to ten years. This study has made it possible to point out the potential of the textile field, as well as its weaknesses, thus allowing the identification of some spaces for innovation.
This huge analytical work, carried out in order to get into the domain of textile items and market, led to the creation of a synthetic view in order to reach the proposal of a solution. The means for this synthesis has been considered the most effective for preserving creativity and also for retaining a constant reference to the background of preliminary studies. This approach involved identifying all the keywords related to the major fields of research – person, wellness and house – and associate them, creatively and without constraints, in order to create a network of relationships that could lead to figure out a targeted proposition of Home Textile for Tomorrow; the rationalization of this step has been implemented by using a powerful and versatile model, the Tree of choices.
Three main scenarios have therefore been identified in terms of situations, represented by a target, with its correlated needs and expectations, located in a particular type of house, depicted in the background. The type of developed scenarios does not go into details of the so-called feasibility analysis and do not include a factual project for the proposed products; no in-depth analysis of either economic, or specific technological issues was considered, in accordance with the specific decision to focus on the element of creativity and innovation in the home textile sector, as required by the external institution. The completion of the scenarios is carried out with the definition of a coherent representative product, proposed in terms of allocation in the house, functional and aesthetic features, the selection of a consistent technology in order to realize the planned product and the development of a communication strategy to be adopted by the firm in order to conquer the targeted customer; this was implemented in conjunction with suggestions in terms of retail design, sensory shop experience and message to be conveyed during the purchase.
Principal Academic Tutors
Marinella Levi
Chemistry Materials and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Academic Tutors
Arturo Dell´Acqua Bellavitis
Industrial Design, Arts, Communication and fashion, Politecnico di Milano
Alessio Marchesi
Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Candido Fabrizio Pirri
Physics, Politecnico di Torino
External institution
Gruppo Zucchi
External Tutors
Tiziano Longhi
Gruppo Zucchi
Anna Santambrogio
Gruppo Zucchi
Team members
TEAM A
Emma Isobel Barker – Hemings [Project Communication Coordinator, Team
controller], Chemical Engineering
Federica Balconi, Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Roberto Cicellini, Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Eloisa Fontana, Communication Design
Diego Gallo, Biomedical Engineering
Andrea Lussana, Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering