Multidisciplinarity as the foundation of innovation
Last week we organized the Manni Innovation Contest, an Upskill 4.0 project with Manni Group that involved 13 students from the Venice School of Management and the Building Engineering and Architecture course of the Milan Polytechnic. Followed by Upskill 4.0 project managers Elena Masi and Olga Popa and Grazia Marrone, a doctoral student at Politecnico di Milano, the students faced a real-life Manni Group sustainability challenge by going directly to the company.
Five days of "in-house residency" among teams with diverse backgrounds in a truly inspiring setting, the Green Innovation Factory in Rovereto built by Japanese archistar Kengo Kuma, in close contact with managers and employees, from 12 different business units, from R&D to human resources working at Manni.
The company is a leader in the engineering and construction industry, and has always had a strong commitment to innovation and sustainability. It specializes in steel fabrication and sustainable building solutions, and offers integrated services ranging from conceptualization to project implementation, with a focus on reducing environmental impact.
The project began with a brief from Enrico Frizzera, CEO and General Manager of the Manni Group, followed by that of materials engineer and R&D Project Manager of Isopan, who gave precise directions and definitely raised the bar of expectations.
Then students began working in small groups, all interdisciplinary and multilingual, in close contact with company managers and employees.
Young people were the real protagonists in developing proposals that responded to the current challenges of the construction industry, integrating sustainability and innovation, intersecting current needs and future trends.
If the diversity of students' backgrounds initially scared everyone a little, in fact interdisciplinarity was the real key element.
In Design Thinking, diversity and interdisciplinarity among teams are key elements for success and innovation. Diversity, understood as a variety of cultural backgrounds, experiences, and points of view, enriches decision making, stimulating creativity and problem solving. When teams are composed of members with interdisciplinary expertise, it creates a collaborative environment where diverse knowledge is integrated, allowing challenges to be approached from multiple angles and finding more comprehensive and innovative solutions.
Business and management students along with engineering and architecture students brought different skills and ways of approaching problems.
The value and strategic proposition given by Ca' Foscari students was always counterbalanced by a very practical technical side of the Polytechnic students, which could sometimes refute or reinforce the proposed solutions.
The solutions were then presented to the Manni Group Advisory Board, which was also attended by Prof. Stefano Micelli and Marco Imperadori of the Milan Polytechnic.
Three prototypes were presented that can be summarized as new business strategies and designs on the topic of environmental sustainability based on the principles of design for disassembly through a business unit and platform to manage design activities for the end-of-life of buildings, retrofit with a configurator that assists the designer in making existing buildings more efficient through innovative materials and technologies, to the proposal of a platform to facilitate the implementation of projects by first assessing impact parameters such as material and logistics.
The contest then concluded with a prize visit to Arte Sella Park, a cultural and nature experience to reflect on the importance of sustainable innovation and the impact that architecture, art, and design can have on the construction industry and beyond.