Arredo & Città

Arredo & Città is the twice-yearly magazine of Fondazione Neri dedicated to the schemes, debates and research on the design and style developments of city lighting and street furniture. Through in-depth single-theme articles and rich photo reports the periodical concentrates on recovering and showcasing the urban heritage, a true cultural resource and of fundamental interest both for a historical survey and a new design. ISSN 2421-4310

The magazine was born of the need to make known an industrial product which, after achieving major success between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, disappeared from the market and appeared no longer to be of interest, not even from the history standpoint. Cast iron, used for smaller architectural features and for “furnishing” rapidly expanding towns and cities, is instead testimony to a process which succeeded in combining effectively the inherent characteristics of artisanal work with the technological processes of industrial production.

The appeal of city life, the regaining of history and of memory as elements able to sustain the social fabric and the city designed as a human territory where each one can recognise and find themselves are the themes which characterised the first editions of the magazine and defined its mission. In parallel, and right from the first edition, the “monographs” were developed, referring to totally new and exclusive research around items of urban street furniture (lampposts, fountains, benches, railings, etc.) of which the various types are documented.

Topical discourses were also included over the years. Already in 1998 the magazine tackled the theme, still unknown, of light pollution, or discussed malls as new meeting places before the definition came into common use. But above all designs for the improving changes to small or large portions of urban areas have on each occasion found their way onto the pages of Arredo & Città.