Reti Blu enters the ADI Design Index 2025: design as a tool for inclusion

Studio SHIFT celebrates a new milestone: the project “Reti Blu” has been selected in the Social Design category of the ADI Design Index 2025, standing out for its design quality, innovation, and social impact.

What is the ADI Design Index

The ADI Design Index is the official guide to the best Italian design productions curated by the Association for Industrial Design (ADI).
This prestigious selection rewards projects capable of combining aesthetics, functionality, innovation, and sustainability, highlighting solutions that most effectively respond to contemporary challenges.

Being included in the ADI Design Index means gaining national and international visibility, accessing the selection for the Compasso d’Oro (Italy’s most prestigious design award), and seeing the value of a responsible, community-centered design approach – such as ours – officially recognized.

A project that starts with people

Reti Blu is an inclusive signage project created by Cooperativa Sociale Itaca and Solidalia, aimed at promoting inclusive experiences and environments for neurodivergent people living with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), cognitive disabilities, or sensory impairments.

The initiative—supported by DGR 7504 of Regione Lombardia—involves seventeen municipalities in the Romano di Lombardia (BG) area and is built around a simple yet revolutionary principle: change the context, not the person.
The more an environment responds to the needs and functioning of autistic people, the more perceived barriers decrease.

The action lines: socialization, learning, and inclusion

The project is structured around several areas of intervention involving minors, families, institutions, and local communities:

Line B – Socialization: Guided experiences in small mixed groups composed of ASD minors and classmates, designed to foster shared community moments and mutual value.

Line C – Learning: Multisensory stimulation activities using the Snoezelen and basal stimulation methods, cognitive enhancement based on the TEACCH approach, and support in protected socio-occupational activities.

Line E – Inclusion: Design of public spaces, cultural events, and recreational activities that are autism-friendly, with active participation of people with ASD.

A network that transforms cities

Reti Blu works to build networks of expertise and proximity capable of ensuring the continuity of activities and the development of life, educational, work, social, and relational skills.

One of its most significant achievements is the transformation of the Romano di Lombardia (BG) area into an autism-friendly territory: a permanent laboratory of inclusion where institutions, schools, the third sector, and local businesses collaborate to make every space more welcoming and accessible.

Here, thanks to Studio SHIFT, an integrated signage system with AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) has been developed and installed – featuring spatial labels, behavioral guidelines, and visual scripts. This system, implemented across participating commercial activities and public spaces, supports children and young people with neurodiversity in gaining greater autonomy in everyday life.

The signage also helps children, elderly people, and foreign citizens, making the city more accessible and easier for everyone to navigate.

Design for social impact

For Studio SHIFT – responsible for guiding the initiative in its strategic and design dimensions – its inclusion in the ADI Design Index 2025 is a meaningful recognition: the affirmation of a commitment to using design as a tool for social impact, capable of creating more inclusive, accessible, and joyful environments.