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Set Design
Undergraduate
Set Design
  • Bachelor of Arts in

    Set Design

The Programme: overview

The BA provides students with the tools to address the complex reality of set design through the study of design-related topics in the fields of theatre, events, exhibitions, fashion shows, cinema and television, among others. Through crossover courses like photography, light design, costume design and performing arts, and internships at theatres and leading companies in the field, students acquire qualified skills to enter the professional world, including the development of professional dossiers, budgets and periodic analysis production, work planning and organisation.

Over the BA, students will have the opportunity to:

  • Devise and design stage sets, costumes, installations
  • Organise projects, budgets and plannings
  • Working in a team with theatre planning and direction departments, and with curators for art, design and fashion events
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STUDY PLAN
<p>During the programme, student acquires knowledge and skills necessary to undertake a professional specialising path.</p> <p>After the first year, students choose their specialisation, in the second and in the third year they attend specific courses aimed at identify a qualification to be developed in the last semester.<br />&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>FIRST YEAR<br /></strong></p> <p>Introduces students to the basic tools to approach set and costume design for the show business and for live events, from opera to theatre plays, from dance to musicals to concerts, and to new kinds of sets for performances, exhibitions, and fashion shows.</p> <p>Through theoretical, project-based and lab teachings of set design, digital technologies and applications, history of costume, history of modern art, drawing for design, scene design, students analyse creative and executive phases of set preparation, space modelling, costume as a communication tool, hand and technical drawing, stage as a scenic machinery.<br />&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>SECOND YEAR</strong></p> <p>Guides students towards further improvement in the set design field by choosing one of the programme specialisations (Theatre and Opera, Media and Events) and through specialising studies in set design, direction, costume design, photography, history of cinema and video, phenomenology of contemporary arts, scene design, digital applications for visual arts.<br /> Led by teachers through field experiences, students learn how to approach set design projects for theatre, how to devise and design events, direction techniques for live performances and fitting, costume and scene design.<br />&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>THIRD YEAR</strong></p> <p>Defines students knowledge and skills and provide the opportunity to confront practical experiences in set design for real brief in the field of live performance and events.</p> <p>By the end of the programme, students develop a personal method and language in set design through specialising teachings of history of performing arts, set design, scene design, performative techniques for visual arts, light design, applied techniques for theatre production, cultural anthropology, and didactic activities related to the thesis project, in its theoretical and project-based components.&nbsp;</p>

Department: Design and Applied Arts

Area: Set Design

Title Awarded: First Level Academic Degree

Credits: 180 CFA

Starting: October 2023

Duration: 3 years

Languages: Italian and English

Campus: Milan

Specialisations: your academic career

Specialisation: Theatre and Opera

It provides students with the instruments for set design in all of the show business’ main fields, enabling them to fulfill with awareness a completely developed project for the contemporary audience.

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Bachelor of Arts in Set Design
Specialisation: Theatre and Opera
<p>The <strong>Stage Design course</strong> provides students with the opportunity to acquire the fundamental instruments for <strong>set design</strong> in all of the show business main fields, through learning how to approach a space to be structured and how to analyse the most meaningful scenarios of the contemporary cultural production.</p> <p>Through a theoretical as well as a practical approach, it enables students to fulfill with awareness a completely developed project conceived for operas, theatre plays, ballets, musicals, live concerts. Future <strong>Stage Designers </strong>have also the chance to confront with the diverse show business realities and their needs, as well as the contemporary audience demand.</p>
Specialisation: Media and Events

It leads students in the set design, from the concept up to the complete realization, of artistic performances, events, exhibitions, videoclips, showcases, sets, and in brand design projects

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Bachelor of Arts in Set Design
Specialisation: Media and Events
<p>The <strong>Media and Events course</strong> is focused on the new instruments and methodologies for <strong>set design</strong> and new kinds of sets for artistic performances, exhibitions, events, music videos, fashion shows, as well as for advertising, photographic and television sets, and vitrines.</p> <p>The specialisation aims to enable students to develop their personal projects with a complete methodological awareness, through the mastery of knowledge and skills necessary to comprehend and control all stages of the contemporary cultural production.</p>

Our Faculty

Luca Poncellini
Design and Applied Arts Department Head
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Design and Applied Arts Department Head
Luca Poncellini
<p>Luca Poncellini is an architect and a designer with a PhD in the History of Architecture and City Planning. As a partner in the architecture office Cliostraat until 2009, he has curated projects and has lectured in Italy and in several countries throughout the world. His works&nbsp; have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, at the Van Alen Institute in New York, at ETH in Z&uuml;rich, at MAGA in Gallarate and at Triennale Milano. In 2008 he co-curated the retrospective exhibition Laszlo Hudec, in collaboration with the Hungarian Consulate in Shanghai. Since 2013 he has been the Course Leader of the MA in Interior Design. Between 2015 and 2019 directed the research lab and the project C-Park. Since 2019 he has been Design and Applied Arts Department Head.</p>
Vincenzo Cuccia
Set Design Area Leader
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Set Design Area Leader
Vincenzo Cuccia
<p>Vincenzo Cuccia has a degree in Cultural Heritage from Universit&agrave; Statale di Milano and in Editing from the Milan Scuola Civica di Cinema e Nuovi Media. As part of his previous professional experience, he worked as an editor in advertising and television, where he collaborated with the RAI (Milan tv broadcast production area) on entertainment, culture and information channels. After working in the SAE Institute since 2009 as lecturer and then Academic Coordinator and Manager of the activity of undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the Creative Media campuses of Milan, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Brussels, Madrid, Paris and Stockholm, between 2017 and 2021 he has been Course Leader of the BA in Media Design and Multimedia Arts while from 2021 he is Area Leader of Media Design and New Technologies, and Set Design.</p>
Margherita Palli
Bachelor of Arts in Set Design Course Advisor Leader
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Bachelor of Arts in Set Design Course Advisor Leader
Margherita Palli
<p>In 1984, Margherita Palli began a successful and stable collaboration with Luca Ronconi, creating sets for many of his shows and following him both nationally and internationally in his work (at the Venice Bienniale, Piccolo Teatro and Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro di Roma, Salzburg Festival, NNT in Tokyo). She also collaborates with directors and choreographers such as M. Avogadro, A. Barzini, V. Binasco, F. Branciaroli, H. Brockhaus, L. Cavani, D. Ezralow, Yang Jiang, C. Lievi, V. Malosti, M. Martone, L. Muscato, C. Rifici, A.R. Shammah, A. Sokurov, The George Balanchine Trust. In addition to her work in the theatres, she curates the design of exhibitions and events. She has won many prizes, including - six times over - UBU Prize, Abbiati Prize, Gassman Prize, ETI Prize for the Theater Olympics and National Association of Theater Critics&rsquo; Prize.</p>
Study Abroad Opportunities

Through exchange programmes, NABA's International Office encourages and supports students wishing to study abroad.

The office promotes educational experiences at numerous prestigious international partner universities worldwide. Thanks to this vast international network, students at NABA are able to spend periods of study abroad, enriching their educational curriculum and laying the groundwork for increasingly international future careers.

International study opportunities are mainly provided as part of the Erasmus+ project promoted by the European Commission, the International Exchange Program for destinations outside of Europe, the Semester Abroad Program at the Galileo Global Education and short summer courses.

NABA counts more than 50 cooperation agreements with European academies and universities through the Erasmus+ Programme; the Academy also counts more than 20 international cooperation agreements with several universities outside Europe.

 

Companies and institutions placement

NABA has developed strong relationships with leading companies that provide internships for NABA students, including: Compagnia della Rancia, Associazione Terzo Millennio, Teatro Stabile di Genova, Fondazione Teatro La Scala, Fondazione Ente Autonomo Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Teatro degli Incamminati Società Cooperativa, Associazione Centro Teatrale Bresciano, Teatro Franco Parenti, L'Opera National de Paris, Change Performing Arts S.r.l.

After the Bachelor of Arts

Graduates of the BA in Set Design program will have the theoretical, technical, and practical skills to launch a career as:

  • Opera, ballet and prose set and costume design
  • Musical and concert set design
  • Exhibition and event set design
  • Music video and advertising set design
  • Fashion show and photo shooting set design
  • Television and cinema set and costume design

Graduates in Set Design may also choose to continue their studies in related disciplines such as: theatre design (opera), event & land live performance design, multimedia design, and costume design.