THE CHALLENGES
Architecture & design
Beauty to service functionality.
In the years to come, the new technologies will interweave new relations with art and design. Realities that are very close to Ivrea, such as the CCR (Conservation and Restoration Centre) Venaria Reale, are investigating the possible use of latest generation technologies in the conservation and restoration of artistic and architectural heritage.
The Fabbrica di Mattoni Rossi – a symbol of Olivetti’s history and the starting point of the transformation of Ivrea into an industrial city – is a symbolic and privileged point to think about these new horizons. This is even more so at a time when Ivrea is completing the process as a candidate to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as industrial city of the 20th century.
LESSONS FROM THE PAST: ARCHITECTURE AND WORKING WELL
Ivrea is the best place to note the influence of architectural choices on relations within spaces.
To support the growth of the company without renouncing to its desire to turn the factory into a place intended to build a new community, Adriano Olivetti entrusted two youngsters, Luigi Figini and Gino Pollini, with the task of designing the new factories: the rationalist style and glass became dominant, and resulted in the creation of elegant, human friendly, clear, and bright factories.
The factory, a privileged place for building a people-oriented society, had to be aesthetically worth this mission. And more generally, all new buildings had to be so, regardless of whether they were intended for production, design, care, recreational activities, or residential purposes.
Besides this, the mainstream thought at Olivetti was that masterpieces appreciated throughout the world because of their functionality and also in view of their beauty, could not have been realised – viceversa – in sad and stifling places.