To coincide with the NYCxDesign Festival (15-21 May 2025), INTERNI is presenting an international issue and bringing to the Big Apple the second edition of Big Italy New York: a circuit of events conceived, curated and organised by the magazine edited by Gilda Bojardi, in partnership with NYCxDesign, ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Faire) and ITA (Italian Trade Agency) that will take place from 13 to 21 May.

The May issue of INTERNI, published in English/Italian, contains a 30-page dossier dedicated to the events featuring the more than 50 showrooms, flagship stores and single-brand stores taking part in the initiative and showcasing the excellence of Italian Design around the world, along the NoMad route via Madison to SoHo.

The magazine also discuss thevirtuous relations that historically link Italy to New York – and more generally the US – through places, projects and personalities that in recent decades have shaped a history of cultural reciprocity between the two countries. Notable figures include Gaetano Pesce and the couple Lella and Massimo Vignelli. The fact that Americans know and appreciate Italian design is largely thanks to these Italian masterswho moved to New York. Other Italian designers chose to settle overseas where they succeeded in establishing their professional expertise. Two notable current figures include the architect and urban planner Carlo Ratti, director of the Senseable City Lab at the MIT in Boston, who this month is inaugurating the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, of which he is curator, and Giorgia Lupi, an award-winning information designer and partner of the interdisciplinary design studio Pentagram, who designed the visual identity of the XXIV Milan Triennale.

New York City’s skyline is represented in the magazine through a selection of projects ranging from social housing to exclusive residences, offices and event spaces, resulting from targeted urban regeneration efforts. Leading names in international architecture are behind these projects, from Steven Holl to Daniel Libeskind, Bonetti/Kozerski, Gabellini Sheppard, LOT-EK, SOM, Tihany Design and Fuller/Overby. And the distinction of a strong linguistic identity, strikingly interweaving themes of historical memory, contemporary design, material experimentation, environmental sustainability and an unmistakable touch of Made in Italy.

Events

Big Italy New York will be inaugurated on Wednesday 14 May at 6 p.m. at ITA’s headquarters (33 E 67th St, New York) with a special meeting that will revolve around the project Casa Italiana x Italy on Madison, curated and conceived by Paola Navone (Studio Otto), who directs a narrative that interweaves entrepreneurship, craftsmanship and design. After greetings from Erica di Giovancarlo (director of ITA New York) and Gilda Bojardi (director of INTERNI), the talk entitled Where Design Meets History will begin. This will involve a form of cultural sparring between Paola Navone, a panel of international interior designers, including Duccio Grassi, Yabu Pushelberg, Enrico Bonetti, and Gabriele Chiave, and Italian entrepreneurs Rossella Bisazza, Giulio Cappellini, Bendis Ronchetti Illulian, and Daniele Busca/Scavolini USA.. An open exchange of visions and skills that conveys the image of an Italian House that can enhance tradition by projecting it into the contemporary. Decorated in the colours of the flag, the house is brought to life at ICE through objects united not only by chromatic harmony, but by a shared intent: to improve the quality of daily life through design.

This will continue on Friday 16 May with the ICFF Night Out, a series of widespread events and presentations focusing on design, culture and innovation. Finally, on Sunday 18 May at 12 noon at the ICFF headquarters at the Javits Center (429 11th Ave), the INTERNI Cre-Action Big Italy in New York debate will be held with Francesca Portesine, SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), in dialogue with Massimo Iosa Ghini. Two design visions compared, two different paths, but with a common goal: to create spaces and objects that improve people’s lives. From the concept to the choice of materials, every design gesture aims to improve the quality of inhabiting the world. Architecture, design and art become tools for reading the present and imagining new perspectives, working on different scales and contexts: from building to exhibiting, promoting and reinterpreting.

May’s edition of INTERNI will also enjoy special distribution in the most iconic showrooms and flagship stores on the NoMad, Madison Avenue and Soho circuit; inside ICFF; in New York City’s leading design studios, major schools of design and architecture, at Rizzoli Bookstore and in a select number of book and magazine stores.