On my last day in Italy I visited Ivrea from Turin. After loads of medieval /Renaissance/Baroque cities and churches taking in some modern architecture was a welcome change.

Ivrea was the location of the headquarters of Olivetti and all the components of the site were Olivetti buildings. While nowadays the fortunes of Olivetti have dwindled, it was a very successful corporation for most parts of the 20th century up to the 80s where Olivetti was the second largest manufacturer of PCs worldwide. Olivetti also created several industrial design classics.

Walking across town I saw multiple factories, office buildings, and residential buildings. These were constructed over the decades while Olivetti kept growing and their styles vary along with the fashions. Also important to note is that the company buildings are just a part of Ivrea. Ivrea is not a fully artificial town as e.g. Crespi d'Adda is. As such, I found myself repeatedly wondering if I was looking at the site or just a normal building. I do recommend downloading the official map from the nomination website before you visit.

The most iconic building is probably the Unitas Residenziale Ovest. The factories are greatly reminiscent of the Van Nelle Factory. And the Centro Studi Ed Esperienza Olivetti offers a colorful Italian touch to modern architecture.

OUV

As pointed out by Els and other reviewers the state of preservation of the site is not great. Many of the buildings show rust and could use fresh paint. The lawns and trees would also require regular gardening. Finally, the sign posting should be revised and the accessibility of the site improved. I regularly ignored signs telling me that I was forbidden to enter as I was trespassing private property.

While these points can be addressed the more central critique I see is that these buildings are not original or defining of an era. Each building at the time of construction was what modern architecture looked like. But Ivrea was working with and innovating on existing ideas (Fagus, Tugendhat, Van Nelle), not defining them.

Still, I would favor inscription. While most modern architecture sites are documenting a single point in time, Ivrea shows a bit better the development of architecture in the 20th century. It also manages to combine factories, offices and low to high end residential buildings into one location all the while adding a unique Italian design flavor.

Getting There

Ivrea has three train connections:

The site itself more or less starts directly at the train station along Ave Jervis.