Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani's 'Frammenti urbani' Examines Urban Furniture

Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, a leading international expert in urban history, has published 'Frammenti urbani' (Bollati Boringhieri, Turin, 2021), a book that offers an unprecedented survey of the 'fragments' furnishing cities. The author categorizes urban elements into micro-architectures (kiosks, public toilets, phone booths, bus stops, metro entrances), objects (monuments, fountains, benches, lampposts, clocks, bins, traffic lights, house numbers), and furnishings (shop windows, pavements, manhole covers, sidewalks, fences). Lampugnani argues that these 'ambivalent and enigmatic' items have become so ingrained in urban space that they go unnoticed. The book traces the histories of these signs through literature, art, and cinema, showing how each element arises from practical necessity but evolves over time due to changing aesthetics, politics, and economies. A key example is the telephone booth: born in the late 19th century as a private, comfortable space, it gradually became transparent and cold, and was ultimately rendered obsolete by mobile phones. Lampugnani's work encourages readers to see cities with new eyes, asserting that 'only with sobriety of architectural composition and urban arrangement do public spaces become both functional and expressive.'