Environmental Graphic Design e l’approccio semiotico. Il caso esemplificativo di una nuova piazza nella periferia di Assisi

The paper exemplifies the methods of intervention of the Environmental Graphic Design (EGD) presenting the results of an interdisciplinary project of enhancement of the territory implemented through the urban redevelopment of an industrial area. The design experience was born within the Design Laboratory of the Degree Course in Building Engineering and Architecture of the University of Perugia and moves from the semiotic contribution to the design process by examining the phenomena of signification related to the project, demonstrating how they not only contribute to identifing what the artefacts around us 'say', but highlighting how semiotics offers to design the tools to analyze the relationships that are created between them. Therefore, we report the results of the exemplifying case of a project of interaction between the new urban spaces in Santa Maria Degli Angeli (Assisi) and the creation of an artefacts system for communication and information aimed at orientation and enjoyment of the place. The case study shows how, even in the process of creating a series of elements aimed at the visual communication of information useful for 'finding the way', considering design as a 'form of discourse' means changing point of view on its role, broadening its horizons. With the intent of promoting an integrated approach to Environmental Graphic Design, we show how the semiological filter allows the project to move from a perspective of observation focused on the statements, which are the artefacts, to the statement, that is, the procedures through which they are proposed as significant objects, that is, becoming what they are thanks to the relationship that binds them on the one hand to human actors (who produce and use them) and on the other to the artefacts that surround them.