The Lingotto
An icon of modern architecture, and considered an industrial masterpiece by Le Corbusier himself, the Lingotto factory has left its mark on Italian culture as a symbol of the Fiat group and of Italy itself.
In 1915, Fiat chose this location to set up its production workshop. The factory quickly turned what was once a rural village into a working-class district.
The Fiat plant at Lingotto was designed and built by architect Giacomo Mattè Trucco
starting in 1915, together with other designers such as Francesco Cartasegna and Vittorio Bonadè Bottino, who took as their main source of inspiration the American model of Ford factories.
Work lasted from 1916 to 1930, although the plant was officially inaugurated in 1922 in the presence of the King of Italy.
The Industrial Age
The workshops consisted of two elongated longitudinal bodies designed for car manufacturing. Both were over five hundred metres long and connected by five multi-storey constructions for staff services.
At the ends of both elongated bodies, two helical ramps were built between 1923 and 1926. This allowed the cars to drive directly from the ground floor onto the test track, which consisted of two straights (over four hundred metres each) connected by two parabolic curves.
The office building, built in 1926, hosted management and administration office, a canteen and other services. During its lifetime, the factory produced dozens of car models, such as the Torpedo, the Balilla and the Topolino. It was shut down in 1982, following the relocation of production to other plants. But like many historic buildings, the Fiat plant needed a radical transformation to successfully move into a new era.
The transformation
As early as 1982, a joint venture led by Fiat tried to redevelop the recently closed plant, but to no avail.
In 1985, the Genoese architect Renzo Piano was commissioned with the renovation.
As a symbol of industrial archaeology, the factory was split into different functions throughout a long process of renovation. On the outside the structure remained unchanged, but on the inside it was profoundly modified.
Over the years, the Lingotto area came to host the Lingotto Fiere Exibition Centre (in 1992), the Lingotto Congress Centre and the Giovanni Agnelli Auditorium (in 1994), a service hub, several management offices, a shopping arcade with dozens of shops, bars and restaurants (in 2002), as well as a helicopter landing strip. In 2002, the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli was inaugurated, while in 2011 the former hotel Le Méridien Lingotto (1995) was rebranded as an NH hotel and renamed “Nh Lingotto Congress”. The Le Méridien Turin Art+Tech hotel (2003) was first rebranded (in 2011) as an NH hotel and renamed “NH Lingotto Tech”, and later (in 2018) as a Hilton hotel under the name of “DoubleTree By Hilton Turin Lingotto”.
“A genuine piece of the city”
In Renzo Piano’s own words, this was the goal he had in mind for the Lingotto.
The first event organised in the renovated factory was the Motor Show, in 1992.
In just a few years, Lingotto Fiere has gained tremendous importance: it now hosts the Book Fair, the Salone del Gusto, Artissima (A Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibition), as well as many other national and international events.
Both hotels were the headquarters of the organising committee of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics. The NH Torino Lingotto Congress Hotel has a beautiful tropical garden, the “Giardino delle Meraviglie”, from which you can directly access the “Lingotto” shopping area.
At the top the South Tower we find yet another of Renzo Piano’s jewels, called the “Bubble”: this 25-seat, panoramic VIP lounge made entirely of glass with steel structures offers a splendid view that sweeps from the Alps to the hills and the city while overlooking the Lingotto’s parabolic track, now home to a roof garden.
