Ivrea - Italy

Ivrea is a town in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. The city has its share of historical landmarks but it was industry that put it on the UNESCO list. Ivrea, industrial city of the 20th century was added to this list in 2021. 

Founded in 1908 by Camillo Olivetti, the Industrial City of Ivrea is an industrial and socio-cultural project of the 20th century.

The Olivetti Company manufactured typewriters, mechanical calculators and desktop computers. Ivrea represents a model of the modern industrial city and a response to the challenges posed by rapid industrial change. It is therefore able to exhibit a response and a contribution to 20th century theories of urbanism and industrialisation. Ivrea’s urban form and buildings were designed by some of the best-known Italian architects and town-planners of the period from the 1930s to the 1960s, under the direction of Adriano Olivetti. 

The city is comprised of buildings for manufacturing, administration, social services and residential uses, reflecting the ideas of the Movimento Comunità (Community Movement) which was founded in Ivrea in 1947 based on Adriano Olivetti’s 1945 book l’Ordine politico delle Comunità (The Political Order of Communities). The industrial city of Ivrea therefore represents a significant example of 20th century theories of urban development and architecture in response to industrial and social transformations, including the transition from mechanical to digital industries. - in: https://whc.unesco.org

The building on the card is the Olivetti Study and Research Centre, which originally hosted training courses for Olivetti mechanical designers, a fundamental item of this company’s industrial and social policies. The architectural design was by architect Eduardo Vittoria (1951-1954).