SCALIURBANI Conversazioni di Architettura | Naming + branding design competition

Last November the Association of Architects of Livorno opened a design competition for the naming and branding of an new, city-wide festival dedicated to architecture that will take place annually, starting in summer 2019.
Our proposal, SCALIURBANI - Conversazioni di Architettura, won the first prize in the competition and was officially adopted as the event’s name and visual identity.

Our concept was a homage to the Tuscan city’s historical vocation as a major node for the trade of goods and ideas, which shaped its unique topography.
Specifically, we were inspired by the Scali, the waterways built to link the port and the city, that gave Livorno a peculiar shape and that, still to this day, are a defining element in its urban fabric.

Research on antique maps brought us to design the main visual element for the logo by tracing the historical path of the Scali: an articulate shape that encircles the word mark and is repeated like a shockwave–hinting at both this infrastructure’s vocation as interface between the urban space and its territory, and at the propagation of the ideas presented in the new festival, which will target a diverse audience and different areas of expertise.

The association of the words “scali” and “urbani” is willingly evocative of the concept of “scala urbana” (urban scale), and it further helps recalling the scope and the topic of this new event of urban–and regional–relevance.