Place name stones’ system is the cornerstone of wayfinding and sometimes it is the only indication you can get. At the same time it constitutes the narration of the history of the city, of its illustrious citizens, places and forgotten stories, of its identity. The urban form is a big theatre wing, in which the ruling classes of Italy’s post-unification years have tried to represent democratic and liberal values. Monuments, streets’ plates, place name stones, headers, large buildings of the new urban governance (finances, post office, railway), are to represent the new ideological beliefs of the city’s liberal-democratic policies and are means of civic education. Each city had its own civic identity, that is its own self-representation, carried out by local elites, which on one hand guided the urban development, and filled it with overlapping representative and architectural styles. Henceforth, new names do not always manage to affirm them selves. Indeed, in some cases, there is a resistance of the population, which continues to use the old ones, or one or the other to indicate the same place, street or square.
IN SEARCH OF PLACE IDENTITY
PLAQUES AND TABLETS IN BERLIN, VICTORIA,
MADRID, JERUSALEM, PARIS, FEZ
IN SEARCH OF PLACE IDENTITY
PALAZZO DEI PRIORI, AREZZO
IN SEARCH OF PLACE IDENTITY
PLACE NAME STONES IN THE THIRTIES
PLACE NAME STONES
AREA OF INTERVENTION
TWO NEW LETTERING FOR PLACE NAME STONES
BODONI ARRETIUM TITLING
The new BODONI ARRETIUM TITLING lettering originates from the typeface motifs of many pre-existing stones and it is identified as lettering A. Above are some images of old stones from which the characters were taken, in particular A, C, G, R, M and the corresponding reconstructions in a digital format.
TWO NEW LETTERING FOR PLACE NAME STONES
ARRETIUM TITLING
The new Arretium Titling font also originates from the preexisting plaques’ typeface motifs and it is defined as lettering B. The images show its most noticeable features in letters C,T,E,L, S. It is interesting to note that letter R is very original and characteristics of the city of Arezzo. This particular form of R with a very distinct pin-pointed foot is also to be found in many grave markers in the city’s monumental cemetery dating back to early twentieth century.
THE NEW PLACE NAME STONES
DIMENSIONS AND LEGIBILITY
The sizes of the letters have been calculated in order to maintain a good readability from a distance of at least 30 meters.
THE NEW PLACE NAME STONES
HIERARCHY OF INFORMATION
AND COMPOSITION GRID
The composition grid was necessary to integrate multiple information while maintaining a general readability within optimal parameters.
URBAN SCENOGRAPHY & SUSTAINABILITY
PLACE-NAME STONES
02
PLACE NAME STONES
FIGURES
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