Silvio Baldassarra | Architecture & Design Panel Discussion ICFF 2022

The Toronto ICFF 2022 screening of Prospetiva Olivetti is a film about the iconic Italian industrial design company and what happened after 1960 when it’s visionary leader Adriano Olivetti passed away.
Before the film Italian born Architect Silvio Baldassarra moderated a panel comparing the design industrialists ; Italian ,Adriano Olivetti and his Olivetti Company and Czechoslovakian born ,Thomas J Bata and his Bata Company. Both sons of the founders of their industrial companies where design and architecture and urban planning and a social worker approach were at the center of their culture which made them successful throughout the world. Both emerging in the 1930’s to take the helm of their fathers companies by 1960 they developed company towns built on a social worker focus.
In 1960 Adriano Olivetti published Citta Dell’Uomo ( City of Man). He argues “ The street the factory the house are the most sustainable elements of civilization” The philosophy that Adriano builds his company on is “ The factory cannot just look at the index profit, we must distribute wealth, culture, services, democracy.I think the factory of Man, not the Man of the factory. “
Thomas J Bata establishes the Bata shoe company in Batawa in Ontario and grows the town to 3,400 workers plus’s their families transformed by planned workers housing community. The company moves it’s international headquarters to Toronto in the 1965 and at one point has over 90,000 employees worldwide.
Before IBM, Apple, Google and all the others Olivetti and Bata understood that good product design is good business.
Both leaders had one thing in common product design and building and factory design hiring the best architects of the time including Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Gae Aulenti, Elon Eiermann, Figini-Poloni, Carlo Scarpa, BBPP, Renzo Piano and John B Parkin. They both attached the best engineers and in house designers.
The panel discussion brings architect Stefano Pujatti fron Chieri, Italy, founder of Elastico Farm, Marketing Leader, Stefano Novakovic, of Dialog, Architect Heather Dubbeldam of Dubbeldam Architecture+ Design, and Architect Les Klein Co-founder of BDP Quadrangle.
Many thanks to Cristiano DeFlorentis and ICFF for the video for this NORRed Special.