The renewed interest surrounding the history of the Olivetti company is well known. As Ivrea was recognized UNESCO industrial city of the 20th century in 2018, the theme of industrial culture and the uniqueness of the Olivetti model focus mainly on the figure and legacy of Adriano Olivetti.

The history of the company after his death remains an investigation for few, interested in deciphering the decline and mutation of one of the most avant-garde Italian companies on the international scene, and leaving various themes that accompany the company's expansion abroad unexplored.

One question above all emerges: what has become of the "Olivetti style" in the post-Adriano era? What happens in a company with a strong identity capable of renewing an entire industrial culture, from product design to work spaces, from corporate welfare to cultural dissemination, under the clear design of its leader, when he suddenly passes away?

Prospettiva Olivetti

Prospettiva Olivetti starts from Ivrea to tell the story of the presence of Olivetti which announced itself with industrial plants and model shops of avant-garde architecture. A 'business card' that turned into identity recognition for those who worked there. The documentary is a long journey in the company of many voices, built partly with archive materials, which also physically takes us to some of those places built between the 60s and 80s and which we discover animated with new life.

Architecture, the space of human being, was for Adriano Olivetti an irreplaceable tool for the creation of communities. Ivrea and the Canavese territory were the main fields of action of an industrial policy characterised by strong social responsibility. With Adriano’s death, if the cultural and political project of Community dissolved, its ethical legacy was not abandoned but evolved to face the impact of the upcoming period of rapid international expansion. The challenge was taken up by the management aware of Olivetti's uniqueness, who led the realisation around the world of showrooms, factories and subsidiaries' headquarters conceived as the company's business cards and designed by the masters of the international architectural stage: Gae Aulenti, BBPR, James Stirling and Eduard Cullinan, Louis Kahn, Egon Eiermann, Kenzo Tange, Federico Correa and Alfonso Milá.

And again, like with a rebound effect, Ivrea experienced the latest building creations of a client capable of dialoguing with the avant-garde of architectural experimentation.

In a journey through the Olivetti buildings in Italy and abroad, from the 60s to the 80s, the stories of the protagonists and the extraordinary archival materials are able to rebuild the imaginary of a double perspective: the past one that the Ivrea-based company was able to erect beyond the national borders, and the future one that unites these architectures and their becoming.

The project

The work was set up as a real research to investigate the years of activity of the Olivetti company from the death of Adriano up to the years of the De Benedetti era, when the Engineer took the helm of the Ivrea ship to attempt the crossing of the years 80 and establish itself in the personal computer sector.

In its initial phase the project was given the title “Olivetti – Chronicles of a gentle industry”. The starting intention was to try to tell the complex world and related events of Olivetti post-Adriano and its third cultural and design life, characterized by a hypertrophic and multifaceted development with the involvement of the best architects, designers and graphic designers.

Addressing this complexity is not without its effects. The significance of the themes, their depth and interrelation led to the decision to interrupt the creation of a single story, which would have inevitably led to partiality and superficiality of the contents. The documentary was then split into two feature films: “Olivetti Paradigm ” and “Olivetti Perspective”. They maintain the character of "chronicles", stories about specific events that intersect, are linked and manage to enter into the singularity of the macro theme, respectively of Design and Architecture, trying to decipher the vast world of personalities and symbols.

Festival and screenings