The Urban Architects Group 'Città Nuova' was a union of young professionals who decided to engage in architecture – and urban design – moving consciously away from the figure of the architect seen as an individual creator in order to listen to local communities and to work together. Established (and operating) in Bologna in the early 1960s upon an initiative of Giancarlo Mattioli, the Group included Pierluigi Cervellati, Umberto Maccaferri, Franco Morelli, Gianpaolo Mazzucato, Mario Zaffagnini, and Mattioli himself.

In 1965 the Group, with Giancarlo Mattioli, participated in and won, the competition “Studio Artemide Domus di Milano,” launched by Artemide and Editrice Domus, with a project for a new lamp, Nesso, whose image epitomizes those years and enjoyed long-term fortune, as evidenced by the fact that it is still part of the display of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York.