Description

The building, formerly the Olivetti Social and Residential Services Center, and later the Hotel La Serra – in reference to the morainic hill that demarcates the Canavese territory to the east – is the result of the dynamics of the Olivetti company  policy and of Adriano Olivetti’s community ideals.[1] Together, these led to the recognition of Ivrea, known as the Industrial City of the 20th Century, as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2018.

Hotel La Serra, bounded to the south by the Giusiana public gardens, to the north by Via Bertinatti, and to the east by Corso Botta, is part of a border space on the edge of the historic center, located on land that has been earmarked for expansion and urban renewal since the 1930s. La Serra is emblematic of Italian radical architecture, taking up the concept of connected cities from the utopias of the 1960s and 1970s; a city contained within a supporting infrastructure where highly functional housing cells and essential services are inserted, akin to Peter Cook’s 1964 Plug-in City, in which technological innovation emphasizes the proposed city of the future, a science fiction city.

La Serra was born by the will of the Olivetti company, designed to cross the natural boundary of the Dora Baltea River into Ivrea’s historic center in order to realize Adriano Olivetti’s idea (1901–1960) of a guest house providing the services necessary to meet the needs of the company and the city.

Based upon these ideas, the project of the two Venetian architects Iginio Cappai (1932–1999) and Pietro Mainardis (1935–2007) developed 55 mini-apartments linked by a series of pathways – interposed with ramps, steps, and small bridges – to sports and cultural facilities open to both residents and the public. Indeed, the architects worked in such a way as to not categorize the various levels based on the type of use — private or communal — instead creating viewpoints related to the outside: a network of connections allowing users to benefit from the various services and live in the housing units as necessary. It has twelve entrances altogether and emphasizes circulation with open spaces, hallways and an escalator.

Consisting of nine levels, the building originally featured an archaeological path through Roman remains found during excavation in the basement; a 600-seat aula magna equipped for cinema, assemblies, and concerts; a 25 by 10-meter swimming pool with sauna, gym, and a 150-vehicle parking lot; a domed hall for exhibitions and conferences on the ground floor with about 120 seats; and a restaurant, snack bar, and variously sized rooms for commercial use on the levels above. At the end, the housing units, located on a projecting element formed by four staggered terraced steps inserted into a structural grid, recalled the shape of a typewriter and its keys. Made with four different modules, the apartments were designed to accommodate one to four people. The cells consisted of a single, elongated open space organized on three staggered levels. The furniture was an integral part of the spatial design and everyday life: living room, study, bed, kitchenette, and bathroom. A diagonally sliding opening system – a bay window made of porcelain sheeting based on aeronautical technologies – in the study area allows one to look outside.[2] The whole building tends to resemble and work as a machine, with its technical perfection and maximum efficiency – for its time – meeting the minimum level of subsistence. The housing units were like cabins connected by naval bridges, the snack bar like a fuselage.

The construction process was complicated from the very start: a building license was requested and obtained in 1968, but work was interrupted in 1969 when Roman ruins were discovered. Construction was put on hold for about two years, starting again in 1970 but with a variant of the original project. In the original concept, the covered square beneath the cantilevered building section towards Corso Botta should have been a catalyst and an attractive element for the population of Ivrea due to its permeable conformation. However, the commercial spaces didn’t start up until years later, and closed after a short time.

The variation also modified the original project from a technological and functional point of view: the building had been designed using innovative technologies such as prefabrication. In the end, however, a mixed solution was chosen that included traditional building solutions. Prefabricated systems for residential units were integrated into reinforced concrete, with direct references to nautical construction systems such as hermetically sealed portholes, brass elements, and built-in concealed furniture. From a functional point of view, the second variant had far more serious repercussions. The management problems between the public and private spaces of the building led to the immediate conversion of the housing units – initially planned to temporarily  accommodate technicians and scholars visiting the Olivetti company and the city — into a hotel, in order to guarantee better control of  the interior spaces.[3] This change led to a gradual and increasingly dominant exclusive and non-inclusive use of spaces, compromising the idea of the promenade architecturale and the public soul of the building, contributing to marginalization, progressive degradation, and a sense of abandonment.

Despite being included in tours of Ivrea’s Open-Air Museum of Modern Architecture (MaAM),[4] in recent years the building has undergone progressive architectural and social deterioration. The shutdown of the four-star Hotel La Serra took place in 2001, bringing with it the fragmentation of the building. In 2007, Pirelli RE, the owner of the property, began selling off sections to private individuals.

A small group of industrialists and professionals joined and purchased the ground-floor atrium with shops and the aula magna for use as a cinema. The domed hall, previously donated by Pirelli RE to the municipality, was then also managed by the newly formed company. However, these attempts to revive La Serra ultimately failed and the complex has since fallen into further dilapidation. What was once perhaps the “most progressive and successful company town anywhere in the world representing a new and short-lived kind of corporate idealism“ is currently in a state of hibernation.

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Originally published in: Gerhard Steixner, Maria Welzig (eds.), Luxury for All. Milestones in European Stepped Terrace Housing, Birkhäuser, 2020. Translated by Anna Roos, abridged and edited for Building Types Online.