Architecture tours in Turin
ATT/1: Turin from Brownfields to Greenfields
With the Masterplan of Vittorio Gregotti (1995), Turin became the laboratory-city of reconstruction of post-industrial heritage. The directions of change are multiple, ongoing, and are leaving important signs in its urban fabric: the great north-south axe, upgrading the surrounding areas (the 4 “Spine” Backbones), the 2006 Winter Olympics and the celebrations of 150 years from Unification of Italy are just some elements of this season of great change. This itinerary goes through the most significant places of the new Turin. Starting from the complex of Lingotto with the Pinacoteca Gianni and Marella Agnelli (Renzo Piano, 2002), here the city’s industrial past is linked back to the future: the recovery of the former Carpano with the first national headquarters of Eataly (Negozio Blu, 2007), and, going south, the newly renovated National Automobile Museum (Cino Zucchi, 2011). Crossing the railway lines we reach the main Olympic projects (2006): the Sports Hall (Arata Isozaki), the international area at the former General Markets (Camerana & Partners, Steidle, Diener & Diener), the Arc (Hugh Dutton Associés) and the Oval (Hok). Passing the boulevard of Spina Centrale (Vittorio Gregotti, 2001), we arrive at the transforming areas in the city center, with the Ogr, the halls for the maintenance of trains recently transformed into a cultural center for performing art, the High Speed station of Porta Susa (Arep and Silvio D’Ascia, 2012) and the Intesa San Paolo skyscraper (Renzo Piano, 2016). Then we proceed following the Central Backbone (“Spina Centrale”) and we reach the biggest area of transformation in Turin, 1.000.000 sqm of former industrial areas in the north, Park Dora (Latz+Partner, 2011) and its surroundings (the Church of the Holy Face by Mario Botta, 2006, and the Environment Park by Emilio Ambasz, 2005). The tour ends towards the city center via the new Lavazza headquarters by Cino Zucchi (2017), the cinema’s studios Cineporto (Baietto, Battiato, Bianco, 2008) and the new buildings of the Faculties of Political Science and Law (Foster & partners, Maire Engineering, Camerana & Partners, 2012).
Duration: 1 day (The tour can be shorten in 1/2 day concentrating on Lingotto, Ogr and Intesa San Paolo, Porta Susa and Parco Dora)
Displacements: Private bus or public transports
Reservation: ready to book tour
ATT/2: Torino highlights
The tour starts with a visit at the Renzo Piano’s intervention in the FIAT factory, the famous “Lingotto” designed by engineer Giacomo Matté Trucco and realised between 1916 and 1923 following the Ford model. Then we will enter in the astonishing Palazzo del Lavoro designed in 1961 by Pier Luigi Nervi. We will the discover 25 Verde residential building, designed by Luciano Pia, and the Fondazione Agnelli, a building of the sixties transformed into a digitally-responsive architecture, by Carlo Ratti Associati. The tour ends with a visit to the new headquarters of the coffee-producer company Lavazza, La Nuvola (“the cloud”) in the Aurora neighbourhood on the site of a former power station.
Duration: 1/2 day
Displacements: public transports or private bus
Reservation: at least 1 week before
ATT/3: Pier Luigi Nervi tour
Turin, after Rome, is the city that hosts the largest number of projects by the Roman builder engineer, Pier Luigi Nervi. From the Palazzo del Lavoro (1961, normally closed to the public and subject to a problematic project of transformation and recovery), the tour leads back to the discovery of the large, and well-known, ferrocement vault of Torino Esposizioni built in 1948 for the Turin Motor Show and its subsequent expansion in 1950 (this building cannot be visited on Saturday or Holidays), arriving to the tram Maintenance Garage of the Municipal Tramway (1954), designed and built by Nervi with his company. The tour, which provides entry to all the buildings, is framed in the context of the city’s and Italian’s history, and inside the international biography of this Italian designer.
Duration: 1/2 day
Displacements: public transports
Reservation: at least 1 week before
ATT/4: Carlo Mollino tour
The versatile architect and designer from Turin (1905-1973) in “his” city.
Through projects, drawings and buildings, a 360° Mollino tour for architects, designers and students. From the amazing dancing Lutrario (1960, now Le Roi) to the latest public works, as the futuristic building for the Chamber of Commerce (1964-1973) and the elegant Teatro Regio (1964-1973). In addition, the possibility of starting the tour by an inedited gem: the visit to his “one and only” archive, conserved at the Architecture Faculty, which, among original photographs and beautiful and autograph drawings, allows to frame Mollino and his complex way of working. The visit is extensible to Mollino’s mountain architectures, in the province of Turin (sledge lift near the Lago Nero in Sauze d’Oulx) and Valle d’Aosta (Casa del Sole in Cervinia, 1953, and the reconstruction of Casa Capriata in Gressoney St. Jean, designed in 1953 and never built until now). In Aosta it is possible to see the housing in viale Maternità (1953). For this extension a bus is needed.
Duration: 1 day or 1/2 day (the 1/2 day tour does not include the Archive and the mountain buildings). The Chamber of Commerce cannot be visited on weekends or holiday. The Teatro Regio during weekend can be visited just on Saturday morning.
Displacement: on foot, bus (for the extension in the mountains)
Reservation: at least 1 week before
ATT/5: Ivrea, the city of Olivetti
A modern movement laboratory
The history of Ivrea is indissolubly related to the history of its industry, the leading typewriters’ manufacturer Olivetti, established in 1908. As of the 1930s, Adriano Olivetti was a tireless promoter of a social, cultural and political renewal project intended to change the relationship between industry, society and territory through the disciplines of architecture and urbanism. The tour starts from the core of the industrial development of Ivrea, the Olivetti Factory (L. Figini e G. Pollini, 1934-6) with its long glazed wall, the Kindergarten and housing block (L. Figini e G. Pollini, 1939-42), the workers’ canteen by Ignazio Gardella, and a brief look at the social service’s centre (L. Figini e G. Pollini, 1954-59) and the thermo electric plant (E. Vittoria, 1956-59). Then we move to the District of Via Castellamonte: housing for employees (L. Figini e G. Pollini, 1940-42), 6 single-family houses (M. Nizzoli e G.M. Oliveri, 1948), two houses for employees (M. Nizzoli e G.M. Oliveri, 1951) 18-Flats building (M. Nizzoli e G.M. Oliveri, 1954-55) and the Western residential unit (R. Gabetti e A. Isola, 1969-71). The tour ends with the Eastern residential unit in the center of the town (I. Cappai e P. Mainardis, 1985). The tour can be extended to the Archivio Storico Olivetti where are exposed original Olivetti products, from the first typewriting machine to the first personal computer, advertisement posters and black and white original pictures of many buildings.
Duration: 1 day tour
Displacement: with private bus
Reservation: at least 1 week before
ATT/6: Architecture and wine
The Unesco World Heritage site of the Langhe-Roero and Monferrato District, with the three small towns of Barolo, Castiglione Falletto and Alba, covers five wine-growing areas with outstanding landscapes. It is located in the southern part of Piedmont, between the Po river and the Ligurian Apennines and has been devoted to winegrowing and winemaking for centuries. The tour mixes world famous wineries renown for their Barolo with very interesting example of architecture designed by local architects such as La Brunella Winery in Castiglione Falletto (Guido Boroli 2006), Ceretto Winery in Monsordo Bernardina San Cassiano (Luca Deabate and Marina Deabate 2010), Cascina Adelaide in Barolo (Archicura 2004) and Terre da vino in Barolo (Giovanni Arnaudo 2010). The tour includes also a visit at the Wine Museum by François Confino at the Castello di Barolo www.wimubarolo.it.
Duration: 1 day
Displacement: by provate bus
Reservation: at least 2 weeks before
ATT/7: Alessandria, Borsalino and Gardella
During the XXth century the history of Alessandria, lying in the extreme southeast of Piedmont, is strictly related to the world renowned manufacturer of hats, Borsalino, which commissioned to Ignazio Gardella, one of the major figures of Italian rationalism, and before to his father Arnaldo, a vast complex of civil infrastructures and social welfare institutions which became typical components of the city’s urban fabric. This strict relationship between industry and city’s construction can be compared just with the Ivrea of Olivetti. The tour starts at Museo del Cappello Borsalino and then guides through the different buildings conceived by the two Gardella together with the Borsalino family from the thirties to the fifties: Sanatorio “Vittorio Emanuele III” (Ignazio Gardella, 1931-35), Ospedale infantile Cesare Arrigo (Ignazio Gardella, 1956-57), Dispensario Antitubercolare (Ignazio Gardella, 1933-37) ad oggi Poliambulatorio Gardella, Casa di abitazione (Ignazio Gardella, 1953), Casa impiegati Borsalino (Ignazio Gardella, 1952), Taglieria del Pelo Borsalino (Ignazio Gardella, 1949-56)
Duration: 1 day
Displacement: Private bus or train from Turin
Reservation: at least 1 week before
