Profile
Lara Penin is assistant professor at the School of Design Strategies, where she coordinates the Area of Study of Service Design at the Integrated Design Program. She is part of DESIS Lab. Her work focuses on Design for Sustainable Social Innovation and Service Design. Lara is the Principal Investigator of the two-year project “Amplifying Social Innovations” awarded with a grant from Rockefeller Foundation Cultural Innovation Funds NYC 2009. The project represents a substantial new step in her recent research trajectory based on a successful record of research, education and development projects on an international scale focused on design and sustainable social innovation. Lara has worked in a sequence of projects dedicated to research and modeling of sustainable ways of living, through service design. In particular she managed the project “Creative Communities for Sustainable Lifestyles” (2007-2008), funded by the United Nations’ Task Force on Sustainable Lifestyles, focusing on sustainable ways of living in Brazil, India and China. She holds a PhD in Industrial Design and Multimedia Communication from Milan Polytechnic University and a BA in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of So Paulo. Lara has lectured in Europe, China, India and Brazil and has a record of published papers and articles.