In the historic center of the old Italian city of Ivrea (Piedmont), there is a building of an unusual futuristic shape. Conceived as a state-of-the-art complex combining Olivetti employee housing with a congress center, cinema and exhibition halls, a swimming pool, cafes and shops, the building looks half-abandoned and is perceived today as a monument to architectural utopias half a century ago.
This is the only one of several dozen buildings of the Olivetti company in Ivrea, which is located in the historical center (all the rest were built outside it). The place was deliberately chosen - the complex was conceived as a kind of gift to the city of its main (and in fact, the only) city-forming enterprise. For several decades, the company has built a variety of industrial, educational, office, residential and public facilities south of the city limits. At the same time, construction was carried out in an orderly manner, following a thoughtful urban planning policy that favorably distinguished Olivetti from most large corporations. Gradually, in the southern part of Ivrea, several well-planned clusters (industrial and residential) formed with attractive environments and first-class structures built by famous - and not so - Italian architects. However, their suburban location created some alienation in Olivetti's relationship with the local community, which perceived its employees as outsiders (despite the fact that its charismatic leader Adriano Olivetti enjoyed the respect and sympathy of the residents). A multifunctional complex in the old part of Ivrea, serving both "natives" and "newcomers", was seen as a solution to this problem. Moreover, the building with a complex program and an unusual, ultra-modern appearance was supposed to become a symbolic bridge connecting not only the company and the city, but wider: antiquity and modernity, Italy and the rest of the world.
Having embarked on such an ambitious project, Olivetti made an equally bold choice of architects: young architects from Venice Iginio Cappai (1932–1999) and Pietro Mainardis (1935–2007) were invited to design the complex, who at that time did not have a single independent realization … Somewhat unexpected, at first glance, the choice was explained, on the one hand, by the general revolutionary attitude of the 1960s, and on the other hand, it corresponded to the architectural policy of the company, which solved not only utilitarian, but also image tasks. Olivetti had an original mechanism that guaranteed the creation of a high-class design. Responsibility for the appearance of everything that the company produced or ordered was borne by a special structure - the department of cultural relations, industrial design and advertising, headed by the writer Renzo Zordzi (1921-2010) and accountable only to Adriano Olivetti. It was Dzordzi, with his authority, extensive connections (including outside Italy) and a well-coordinated team, who selected architects. Initially, preference was given to compatriots, but as the international expansion expanded, companies began to attract local professionals, believing that they better sense the context when designing stores and showrooms. The most significant figures in the long list of architects who have formed the Olivetti architectural collection are Ignazio Gardella, Egon Iermann, Kenzo Tange, Luis Kahn and James Sterling.
Having forty years of experience in such architectural patronage and, accordingly, the opportunity to attract much more venerable architects, "Olivetti" still relied on youth, expecting to get something fundamentally new, and at the same time "within the bounds of decency" (after all, it was about construction in a medieval city). Perhaps the fact that Kappai and Maynardis worked with Gardella for a long time and, apparently, participated in his project in Ivrea, also played a role.
The name "La Serra" the building bears today is a play on words: greenhouse / mountain range. This ambiguity is symbolic: in their project, the architects synthesized a whole range of ideas popular in the 1960s and 70s: the creation of megastructures, the use of complex, open (deliberately unfinished) compositions, the integration of private and public spaces, the likeness of a building to a machine (both functionally and figuratively).), replaceability of individual functional modules.
The lower floors, including underground, are reserved for public functions: small shops (more precisely, stalls), a restaurant, cafe, bar, cinema, auditorium, swimming pool, gym, etc. The upper floors are residential, where apartments / hotel rooms are located, originally intended for short-term accommodation for Olivetti employees (there are 55 of them). Most of them face south, in a small square. All living quarters, regardless of size, have an original layout: several floor levels, built-in equipment and even a small courtyard in the center; the premises are integrated with each other, like on yachts or mobile homes. Each studio is marked on the facade with a metal bay window; from the outside they resemble ships docked to a space station.
Many people notice that La Serra looks like a huge typewriter, where the keys are living cells, and the carriage is a cantilever structure hanging over the front facade. However, the allusion is not literal and far from the only one. In their project, Kappai and Maynardis played on a whole set of topics that were relevant at that time: building-megastructure (the center of the new city of Cumbernold in Scotland), terraced structures (University of Norwich by Denis Lasdan, Habitat Moshe Safdie), capsule architecture (Archigram and Japanese metabolists). Thanks to this synthesis, the appearance of the building evokes many different associations: with a machine tool, with a spaceship, in general, with a certain huge machine. It can also be considered a development of the theme of "Housing Unit" by Le Corbusier, and if you dig a little deeper, then the Soviet housing complex at the turn of the 1920s and 30s.
The most amazing thing is that despite its large size and futuristic appearance, the complex is quite delicately entered into the context, not breaking, but organically continuing the urban fabric. Kappai and Maynardis strove to achieve this not by stylistic, but by structural means, subordinating the internal spatial structure of the building to the city. It was assumed that at ground level, the building would be completely permeable: the first floor should become a kind of piazzetta, from where visitors would get into certain rooms on the upper and lower levels.
The original concept (1967) was filled with optimism, expressing the ecstasy of the scientific, technical and social progress that was characteristic of that era. However, during the construction period, which lasted for almost 10 years, the project has undergone multiple changes. As soon as it started, the construction was stopped for two years: while digging a foundation pit, numerous remains of ancient Roman structures were discovered. The project has been redesigned so that all archaeological finds remain intact and freely accessible. Much more serious alterations were caused by external social and economic changes: disappointment in progressive utopias, but most importantly - the decline of the company itself, which missed the onset of the next technological cycle. The future of not only the complex, but the entire city, which had lost its main employer, was under attack. Many of the utopian ideas underlying the concept had to be abandoned: for example, the lack of a clear distinction between private and public zones. Small “adjustments” of a functional and managerial nature kept the project afloat, allowing the complex to be used as a hotel, but the accessibility of most of the public spaces had to be sacrificed.
Unfortunately, Ivrea shared the fate of almost all industrial monotowns that were unable to find alternative sources of activity. It is not one of the popular tourist destinations, and the few connoisseurs of modern architecture are unable to ensure the profitability of the hotel, much less the restoration that the building needs. This is all the more offensive since La Serra is the most striking work of Maynardis and Kappai, who turned out to be not the most prolific architects. Some hope is inspired by the prospect of including the city on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which Ivrea undoubtedly deserves.
Explication:
1 cinema
2 gym
3 archaeological sites
4 heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems
5 swimming pool
6 changing rooms
7 south entrance
8 parking
9 lobby
10conference hall
11big bar
12slava
13 lobby of the residential part of the complex
14 residents' entrance
15the entrance to the lobby of the public part
16covered street
17cafe
18 cylindrical bar
19bar
20cafe / banquet hall
21 cafe on the terrace
22 meeting room
23restaurant
24kitchen
