Prospettiva Olivetti

Architecture, the space of human being, was for Adriano Olivetti an irreplaceable tool for the creation of communities. Ivrea and the Canavese territory were the main fields of action of an industrial policy characterised by strong social responsibility. With Adriano’s death, if the cultural and political project of Community dissolved, its ethical legacy was not abandoned but evolved to face the impact of the upcoming period of rapid international expansion. The challenge was taken up by the management aware of Olivetti's uniqueness, who led the realisation around the world of showrooms, factories and subsidiaries' headquarters conceived as the company's business cards and designed by the masters of the international architectural stage: Gae Aulenti, BBPR, James Stirling and Eduard Cullinan, Louis Kahn, Egon Eiermann, Kenzo Tange, Federico Correa and Alfonso Milá.

And again, like with a rebound effect, Ivrea experienced the latest building creations of a client capable of dialoguing with the avant-garde of architectural experimentation.

In a journey through the Olivetti buildings in Italy and abroad, from the 60s to the 80s, the stories of the protagonists and the extraordinary archival materials are able to rebuild the imaginary of a double perspective: the past one that the Ivrea-based company was able to erect beyond the national borders, and the future one that unites these architectures and their becoming.