Digital Transformation Projects for the Future Digicircular Society

Abstract

The rapid technological development leads us to identify innovation with technology itself. This becomes the core piece of the innovation process in all sectors. In reality, digital transformation has the power to change the meaning of things (Epifani in Digital sustainability: why sustainability cannot disregard digital transformation. Digital Transformation Institute, Rome, 2020) and therefore needs to cultivate a strategic vision of systems and scenarios that can be implemented only through creative design. Designers, thanks to their ability to see, show, predict (Zurlo in Le strategie del design. Disegnare il valore oltre il prodotto. Libraccio editore, Milan, 2021), and design the future, have the role of meeting the challenges posed by digital evolution. This dichotomy between digital and sustainability is analyzed in the article thanks to the workshop “Space Transformation/Industrial Living Environment,” a pilot project for the valorization of productivity in the Valdelsa Senese area that involves, in interdisciplinary groups, students from the various design fields of the School of Architecture of the University of Florence. Another example of planning is the project SMAG—SMArt Garden (Tuscany Region Call RSI—POR FESR 2014–2020), which develops a product-service system equipped with an advanced technological set-up able to control vital parameters of public or private green spaces, using the Internet of things. These examples underline how the physical and digital worlds are interfacing more and more and getting closer. In this scenario, the role of the project is even more important because it allows to manage and direct the innovation and change processes in the direction of a “digicircular” transformation (Epifani in Digital sustainability: why sustainability cannot disregard digital transformation. Digital Transformation Institute, Rome, 2020).