IED turns 60, budget at 100 million and double Compasso d'Oro
The European Institute of Design founded in Milan now has 11 locations worldwide and a hub in New York, with 10,000 students a year
It is not often that a school wins an award as prestigious as the Compasso d'Oro, quite the contrary. The educational institutions that in over 70 years of history and 29 editions have received what is considered the Oscar of design, founded in 1954 by Gio Ponti and awarded by Adi (Association of Industrial Design), can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
The Two Golden Compasses
These include the IED, the European Institute of Design founded in 1966 in Milan by Francesco Morelli, which received two awards on 22 May in Milan: The Compasso d'Oro in the Design for Social category, for the project 'The Glitch Camp', the first free urban camp for students from all over the world conceived and organised by Ied in Milan during the last two Design Weeks. And the Compasso d'Oro Young certificate for the Product Design project 'A occhi chiusi', a collection of inclusive games designed to be used without the need for sight, as sensory experimentation in play and learning.
"The Glitch Camp was born out of a reflection developed a few years ago with the aim of building an accessible 'meeting platform' for young people: an opportunity to come to Milan, listen to the voices of the design world, discover Design Week and really meet each other, physically," said Riccardo Balbo, the group's academic director. "The Compasso d'Oro that ADI awards us is proof of this: we have succeeded in making the extraordinary creative and relational heritage that opens up to the world every year during Design Week more accessible.
Two important recognitions that come, moreover, in a particularly significant year for IED, which celebrates its 60th birthday in 2026 and can celebrate with respectable numbers and results: a budget that, for the first time, reaches the 100 million euro mark, and an international network that makes it the largest private network of art and design schools in Europe. Founded in Piazza Santa Maria del Suffragio in Milan, IED opened an office in Rome as early as 1973, followed by Cagliari in 1984 and Turin in 1989.
In the 1990s, international development began, starting with Spain, with Madrid in 1994 and Barcelona in 2002. In 2005, the first office was opened in Brazil, in São Paulo, and expansion continued in Italia, with openings in Venice in 2007, Florence in 2009 and the acquisition of the Aldo Galli Academy of Fine Arts in Como, also in 2009. In 2014, the Group strengthened its presence in Brazil with the Rio de Janeiro location; in 2020, in Spain, acquisition of the Centro Superior de Diseño Kunsthal in Bilbao. In 2025, the cultural hub Casa IED opens in New York.
