Polytechnic University of Milan
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Founded on November 29 1863, Politecnico di Milano is the oldest university in Milan. The original name was Istituto Tecnico Superiore ("Higher Technical Institute"), Francesco Brioschi the leader, and the location was in the very heart of the city ('via Senato') .
In 1865 Architecture, the second main line of study at Politecnico, was introduced. In 1927 the Politecnico moved to piazza Leonardo da Vinci, in the district now known as Città studi (City of Studies). Politecnico's main facilities are still there today. At the time, it was named Regio Politecnico ("Royal Polytechnic"), but the word Regio was removed when Italy was proclaimed a republic at the end of World War II. The shadow after the letters REGIO, physically removed from the façade of the main building, is however still visible to this day.
In 1954, the first European centre of electronic computation was opened by Gino Cassinis and Ercole Bottani. In 1963 Giulio Natta received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on crystalline polymers, polypropylene in particular. In 1977, the satellite Sirio, jointly developed by Politecnico and other companies, was launched.
During the nineties, the Politecnico began a process of territorial expansion that would have resulted in the opening of its satellite campuses in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna. A university programme in industrial design was started in 1993. In 2000, the politecnico's faculty of design was created with new courses in undergraduate and postgraduate programs of graphic & visual, fashion and interior design along with the already existent industrial design.
