Ivrea Unesco heritage, technology and humanism in the ideal city of Olivetti

A Jewish father, a Waldensian mother, an anti-fascist, Olivetti may seem anti-Italian. On the contrary, one of the protagonists of the Reconstruction of our country: because, alongside engineers, he recruits the best writers and intellectuals. His personal secretary Geno Pampaloni, refined literary critic. Chief of Staff Paolo Volponi, Senior Manager of Social Services of the company: library of 150 000 volumes, center of studies, exhibitions, concerts, nurseries, canteens, clinics. The interviews of new recruits are done by Ottiero Ottieri, who writes an autobiographical novel at the Olivetti factory in Pozzuoli, Donnarumma aggression perhaps the best reconstruction story that makes an economic boom. There are Giovanni Giudici and Franco Fortini, the urban planner Mario Astengo and the best talents of the younger generation: the sociologist Franco Ferrarotti, the financier Gianluigi Gabetti, the journalist Nello Ajello; and a boy from Turin, Furio Colombo, whom Adrian sends to America, where he bought the largest typewriter factory, Underwood. He also founded a party, a community; but the only one elected to Parliament him. Rinuncer at siege

Il sogno

Olivetti's dream of making Ivrea the capital of Italian industrial culture. A project in which bring together Christianity and humanism, social sciences and art, technology and beauty. On Fiat workers look ex carabinieri; on these Olivetti the first psychologists watch.
Its creators invent some of the finest objects of the twentieth century, such as the legendary Letter 22, the Montanelli typewriter. In 1948, a working group was created to develop a diabolism never seen in an Italian office: the calculator, called Divisumma. The electronic division was born: in 1955, Adriano tears Mario Tchou at Columbia University in New York, and he is joined by scientists from the University of Pisa; and here is the Olivetti Elea, the best electronic brain – the word computer not yet entered the Italian lexicon – of the world.

The death of Adriano

Olivetti could be our Steve Jobs, and the Canavese his Silicon Valley; but Italy was a conquered country, and could never replace the victorious country, America, leading the race to modernity. Adriano died suddenly on February 27, 1960 in a train to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he will apply for loans for new investments. He is not yet 58 years old, in excellent health. There is talk of cerebral hemorrhage, but the autopsy will never be practiced

Doubts

A year later, Mario Tchou dies: his driver loses control of the Milan-Turin highway and s' crushes in a van. The rumors that have already circulated in the death of Hadrian are taking shape. Many in Ivrea are still convinced that the engineer Chu was murdered, to favor the American industry. Obviously, there are no tests. And that would have ended like that, with the restored American hegemony and Adriano 's dreams delivered to the history books. In all cases, the Olivetti electronic division is sold to General Electric. Sometimes, history pays a small compensation.