The construction and growth of the disciplinary identity of design, according to the mission of SID, requires giving space to research and historical studies. A discipline that cannot support and update the critical elaboration of its own history, or question its position concerning the past, is a discipline without a center of gravity, destined to remain blind to the future. Within the scientific disciplinary sector ICAR/13, there are scholars who have been engaged for several years in advancing historical research in the field of design.
Their work has contributed to broadening the horizons of investigation beyond conventional canons and narratives, but also to reconsidering the history of design in light of the significant breaks produced by transformations in the socio-technical system as well as environmental conditions that directly involve design, its past, and its future. To support and strengthen this commitment, it is necessary to encourage, incentivize, and fund scientific research and the training of researchers in this field. In this direction, the working group “History of Design” intends to develop cognitive, organizational, and directive activities aimed at both supporting the culture of historical research in the scientific disciplinary sector ICAR/13 and promoting the activation of effective opportunities to develop and disseminate historical research related to design.