The building history of an absolutely innovative
piece of architecture

In 1964 the Torino Chamber of Commerce proclaimed a competition for the building of its new offices. It was won by a project that envisaged the use of avant-garde technologies and techniques. Conceived with modular spaces that answered modern needs of office organization, Palazzo degli Affari was designed by a team headed by Carlo Mollino, an intellectual who made architecture his profession and carried it out with consummate skill and sophistication, maniacal commitment, exemplary irony and self-irony, and a singular attention to technique.

Until now there has been no book that illustrated the building characteristics and history of Palazzo degli Affari. This book recounts the story behind the construction of Palazzo degli Affari, a complex decade-long iter, and its particular architectural features, its use and how it adapted to changing needs. The volume is completed by two extraordinary photographic portfolios: one of period photographs, by G. C. Dall’Armi and Riccardo Moncalvo, illustrating both Palazzo Morozzo della Rocca, destroyed by wartime bombs (and demolished to make way/room for the new building), and the Palazzo degli Affari building site; and a second of colour photographs, by David Vicario, of the building as it is today.

The wealth of archive material conserved in the Chamber of Commerce and in the Polytechnic of Turin – photographs, writings, projects, and drawings – led to a catalogue in common of the documents relating to this building, enclosed with this book as a CD: an extremely useful tool for researchers, professionals, experts in the sector and whoever would like to know more about the work of Carlo Mollino.

Elena Tamagno is a full professor of Architectural and Urban Composition at the Polytechnic of Turin, where she is responsible for the Archives section of the Library. As well as teaching, she carries out research on architectural history and projects, on interventions on historic residential and industrial structures, on architectural manuals, on the techniques, methods and materials of traditional and modern building, and on the planning and management of libraries, archives, and documentation centres. She has published about eighty titles on these subjects including books, articles, essays and conference papers.