Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood will soon be the home of the new Miami College of Design.
The-state-of-the-art educational facility, which will be Florida’s first accredited college focused solely on industrial design, broke ground last month. The state-licensed associate and bachelor of science curricula will focus on a mentorship model and nature-inspired design methodologies.
The school, the vision of Walter Bender and Franco Lodato, experts in industrial design, intends to be open for next fall.
The Miami Herald quoted Bender as saying Miami has become a young, vibrant hotbed of ideas and that the school will add to that.
Miami College of Design will seek to advance the integration of design, science and engineering by taking students through a design process exploring new approaches and solutions. The aim is human-centered and nature-inspired design that enhances the human experience, and “our approach will be unconventional,” said Lodato.
The new building, designed by architect Fred Nagler of Pompano Beach, required removing the front and rear of the two-story warehouse previously on the site and expanding it. A third floor and rooftop garden will also be added.
“There is clearly an energy here but there is not a lot of history in the space in Miami. That means there is not a lot of rigid thinking – there is a lot more openness to ideas and new approaches,” said Bender. “It is a great opportunity for a vibrant, young community and at the same time the world has really opened up to this idea of entrepreneurship, of making, of doing. It’s the time. It’s the right time to be doing this.”