The Naba City

The model of a city today resembles a nebulous cloud that pulsates continuously with moving elements shifting from its centre to its periphery and vice versa in an interminable exchange.

The technological web of both physical and virtual communication structures that enmesh the world finds its counterpart in the pinpoints of aesthetic presences created by architecture and the signs and objects of urban life seen as significant physical and luminous existences.

Two parallel and different presences exist in today’s city: the city of communications and the city of visions?the squares, the streets, the markets, the walkways, the stations and their décor. Both must be seen as aesthetic works, as elements of external theatre equipped with emotional and anthropological significance and suitable for a profound interaction with the inhabitants providing effective stage sets for the citizens.

The architect, the designer, the artist, set designer, graphic designer and the planner will all become new operational elements in these integrated works. Within this context, our role as design professionals is to highlight the production and reproduction of the city with strong artistic signposts that instill energy and, rather than creating indifference, induce people to debate, think, and view the city as more than just a place to be used.

(“Naba” refers to the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan, Italy. This essay was translated from the Italian.)