The research sought to investigate the Olivetti typewriter company’s generalized loss of identity in the Canavese region, considering the processes that led to the progressive abandonment of the corporate’s architectural heritage in the second half of the 20th century. Under the presidency of Adriano Olivetti (1938-1960), after the Second World War, the company entered the electronics field. Starting from 1952, some pioneering experiences were developed in Italy, where the commitment of Le Corbusier for an electronic center (1960-1965) marked the apex of this season. The failure of this project reflected the economic and management-level crises that followed the sudden death of Adriano in 1960 and that caused a global corporate’s reorganization. New investments were settled for electronics and triggered the most demanding architectural program of the whole company’s history in Italy and abroad. In the Canavese region – Olivetti’s birthplace – the project of a cultural, political, and economic community – the Comunità started by Adriano in the 1930s – led to a wide improvement of the constellation of buildings dedicated to electronic research, training, and production, often followed by facilities. Nowadays, mostly none of those architectures recalls the name Olivetti. Hardly anything has been said about their dismission, partial or complete destruction that led to an identity’s collapse in the 1990s. This process is even more impactful in places where the company had its strongest influence, for instance, in the Scarmagno industrial complex (1962-1988). The hub and its regional development plan assume crucial importance in this research. Placed in the heart of Canavese, it was entrusted to internationally known Italian figures, such as Giovanni Astengo, Eduardo Vittoria, and Marco Zanuso. Given the chronology and the complexity of its transformations, Scarmagno hub embodies this phenomenon of oblivion. It is taken as a paradigmatic example in the article to highlight the gap in the traditional Olivetti tale told by the architecture left after the myth’s fall.
NEPOTE VESIN, G., Ulbar, M. (In corso di stampa). When myths fall. Olivetti corporate architecture and its lost identity. ADH JOURNAL, 2.
When myths fall. Olivetti corporate architecture and its lost identity
Giorgio Nepote Vesin
;
In corso di stampa
Abstract
The research sought to investigate the Olivetti typewriter company’s generalized loss of identity in the Canavese region, considering the processes that led to the progressive abandonment of the corporate’s architectural heritage in the second half of the 20th century. Under the presidency of Adriano Olivetti (1938-1960), after the Second World War, the company entered the electronics field. Starting from 1952, some pioneering experiences were developed in Italy, where the commitment of Le Corbusier for an electronic center (1960-1965) marked the apex of this season. The failure of this project reflected the economic and management-level crises that followed the sudden death of Adriano in 1960 and that caused a global corporate’s reorganization. New investments were settled for electronics and triggered the most demanding architectural program of the whole company’s history in Italy and abroad. In the Canavese region – Olivetti’s birthplace – the project of a cultural, political, and economic community – the Comunità started by Adriano in the 1930s – led to a wide improvement of the constellation of buildings dedicated to electronic research, training, and production, often followed by facilities. Nowadays, mostly none of those architectures recalls the name Olivetti. Hardly anything has been said about their dismission, partial or complete destruction that led to an identity’s collapse in the 1990s. This process is even more impactful in places where the company had its strongest influence, for instance, in the Scarmagno industrial complex (1962-1988). The hub and its regional development plan assume crucial importance in this research. Placed in the heart of Canavese, it was entrusted to internationally known Italian figures, such as Giovanni Astengo, Eduardo Vittoria, and Marco Zanuso. Given the chronology and the complexity of its transformations, Scarmagno hub embodies this phenomenon of oblivion. It is taken as a paradigmatic example in the article to highlight the gap in the traditional Olivetti tale told by the architecture left after the myth’s fall.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
