Lingotto is the name of a district of

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, Italy, as well as the name of the Lingotto building in Via Nizza. It once housed a car factory built by Italian automotive company Fiat and today houses the administrative headquarters of the manufacturer and a multipurpose centre projected by architect

Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City ( ...

History

Construction of the building started in 1916 and it was inaugurated in 1923. The design by the young architect Giacomo Matté-Trucco, was unusual in that it had five floors, with raw materials going in at the ground floor, and cars built on a line that went up through the building. Finished cars emerged at rooftop level to go onto the

test track Test Track is a high-speed slot car thrill ride located in World Discovery at Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The ride is a simulated excursion through the rigorous testing procedures that General Mo ...

. The construction was carried out by the company of G A Porcheddu. It was the largest car factory in the world at that time. For its time, the Lingotto building was avant-garde, influential and impressive— Le Corbusier called it "one of the most impressive sights in industry", and "a guideline for town planning". 80 different models of car were produced there in its lifetime, including the

Fiat Topolino Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiar ...

of 1936. By the late 1970s, the factory had become obsolete — having been superseded by the larger and more advanced

Fiat Mirafiori The Stabilimento di Mirafiori (in English, the Mirafiori Factory) is the headquarters and industrial district of the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat, a subsidiary of FCA Italy, which is part of Stellantis, and is the headquarters of CNH Ind ...

factory — and a decision was made to finally close it in 1982. The closure of the plant led to much public debate about its future, and how to recover from industrial decline in general. An architectural competition was held, which was eventually awarded to

, who envisioned an exciting public space for the city. The old factory was restored into a modern complex, with

concert halls A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that ma ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, a convention centre, shopping arcades and a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

. The eastern portion of the building is the headquarters of the Automotive Engineering faculty of the

Polytechnic University of Turin The Polytechnic University of Turin ( it, Politecnico di Torino) is the oldest Italian public technical university. The university offers several courses in the fields of Engineering, Architecture, Urban Planning and Industrial Design, and is con ...

. The work was completed in 1989. The track was retained, and can still be visited today on the top floor of the shopping mall and hotel. Similar rooftop tests tracks exist, including; at Imperia in Nessonvaux in Belgium, and Palacio Chrysler in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From 1928 to 1958, Imperia had a track over 1 km long which was built partially on top of the factory.

Lingotto public transport

Torino Lingotto railway station is served by a number of regional train lines, as well as the Turin Metro ( Lingotto M1). It is a central hub, located close to Turin's hospitals (such as CTO Hospital (Turin)), parks ( Castello Valentino) and the Lingotto shopping district. The Lingotto M1 metro station was officially opened on March 6, 2011, connecting Lingotto with Porta Nuova M1 and other destinations.

In popular culture

The Lingotto building is featured extensively in the Alberto Lattuada film '' Mafioso'' (1962). The original Lingotto rooftop test track features briefly in the getaway sequence in the film ''

The Italian Job ''The Italian Job'' is a 1969 British comedy caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres around Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, r ...

'' (1969). Lingotto is the site of the Oval Lingotto, the

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skatin ...

venue for the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second ...

. The building is also featured in the fourth episode of the 20th season of '' The Amazing Race'', originally aired in the United States on March 11, 2012. The building and test track was featured on the first episode of

James May James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter of the motoring programme '' Top Gear'' alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from 2003 until 2015. He also ...

's ''Cars of the People''.

References

External links

Photos of Oval Lingotto

Google Earth view of Lingotto

About the project of Lingotto Exhibition Center
{{coord, 45, 1, 57, N, 7, 39, 52, E, type:landmark_region:IT, display=title Lingotto Building Districts of Turin Fiat Group factories Motor vehicle assembly plants in Italy