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Ivrea, industrial city of the 20th century

Olivetti's UNESCO-listed modernist factory town, where 20th-century design tried to make industrial work humane.

  • Ivrea
  • District
Plan your visit
Where
Ivrea
Best for
Olivetti's modernist factories
Allow
2 hr 30 min
Tickets
Free

Ivrea, Industrial City of the 20th Century is a UNESCO listed ensemble built by Olivetti, the typewriter and computer manufacturer, as the physical expression of an idea: that architecture, community services and good design could make industrial work humane rather than grinding. Across 27 buildings and complexes spanning the municipalities of Ivrea and Banchette, modernist factories sit alongside nurseries, canteens, a residential district and social services Olivetti funded for its own workers, guided by the utopian social philosophy of Adriano Olivetti's Movimento Comunità. The result reads less like a company town than a built argument about what capitalism owed to the people who made it work. A visitor center in the historic Portineria del Pino gatehouse on Via Jervis, with a free bilingual audioguide and interactive map making the dispersed site legible for a first-time visitor on foot.

A World Heritage industrial and socio-cultural ensemble recording Olivetti's modern approach to production, architecture and social provision.

The long glass-walled Officine ICO factory block in Ivrea
A long glass-walled factory block that lets daylight reach every desk.
Sources and citations (2)
  1. UNESCO World Heritage Centre42 COM 8B.30 Ivrea, industrial city of the 20th centuryInscription decisionRead source
  2. UNESCO World Heritage CentreIvrea, industrial city of the 20th centuryProperty overview and inscription dataRead source

Look closer

The Olivetti Palazzo Uffici in Ivrea, a modernist office block on slim pilotis
Palazzo UfficiA stone-framed grid of windows on slim pilotis, dignified and plain.
The curving Olivetti Western Residential Unit seen from its white walkway
The Western Residential UnitCompany housing curving into the hillside beneath a white walkway.
The former Olivetti canteen, a low brick and glass pavilion in Ivrea
The factory canteenA low brick and glass pavilion where workers ate in a bright, well-made room.

Five things worth finding

If you see nothing else, see these.

  1. Officine ICOLuigi Figini, Gino Pollini, 1934-1958

    Long factory blocks with glass walls that let daylight reach every desk, the modernist idea of a humane workplace made real.Along Via Jervis, the heart of the Olivetti district

  2. Palazzo UfficiLuigi Figini, Gino Pollini

    A brick-clad office building made of five square blocks, dignified and plain in the way the company wanted to appear.Olivetti district

  3. Factory canteenIgnazio Gardella, 1953-1961

    A canteen on a hexagonal plan designed so that workers could eat in a bright, well-made room.Olivetti district

  4. New Olivetti Office BuildingGino Valle

    A later office building whose glazed, modern lines show that the Olivetti experiment kept evolving after the first factories.Olivetti district

  5. Western Residential Unit

    Housing built by the company for its own workers, the social side of a city designed around work and community.Western side of the Olivetti district

Plan your visit

Everything you need before you go.

Tickets
Free
Booking
No booking needed
Time needed
2 hr 30 min
Best time
Weekday mornings, when the Visitor Center is staffed and the factory district is otherwise quiet.
Getting there
Ivrea has a direct train station on the Turin-Aosta line; the Olivetti sites cluster along Via Jervis, a short walk from the station.
Accessibility
The route runs along ordinary town streets and sidewalks, generally flat and accessible, though individual buildings are not open for interior visits.

Walking the self-guided route is free; the audioguide is free online. Occasional special openings of private Olivetti buildings, such as the WelcHome initiative, may have their own booking and cost.

Download the free audioguide before arriving, since the site is a working town, not a museum campus, and without narration the factories can look like ordinary office buildings to an untrained eye.

Official website
Get directionsGoogle MapsApple Maps

Good to know

How long should you spend in Ivrea’s Olivetti district?

Allow about two and a half hours to walk the main buildings along Via Jervis with the audio guide. The sites are spread out but close together, so a slow half day suits a thorough visit.

Do you need to book to visit Ivrea’s industrial sites?

Most buildings are best seen from the street, so you can walk the route on your own without booking. A few interiors open only on guided visits or set days, so ask at the visitor center if you want to go inside.

Is Ivrea worth visiting if you are not an architecture fan?

Yes, if you are curious about how a company tried to build a humane industrial town. The story of Adriano Olivetti and his community ideas is as interesting as the buildings themselves.

More to see nearby

Same city first, then the nearest across the region.

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