Palazzo del Lavoro
The Palazzo del Lavoro is the pavilion built for the International Labour Exhibition of Italia '61, in the area between via Ventimiglia, corso Maroncelli and corso Unità d'Italia, inside the Italia '61 park; designed by Pier Luigi Nervi with Antonio Nervi and Gio Ponti, it is a listed building under the Soprintendenza.[1][2]
The project
The competition was announced in July 1959 for a pavilion of 47,000 square metres; the works, carried out by the firm Nervi & Bartoli with engineer Gino Covre for the steel structures, lasted from February to December 1960.[1] The plan is a square 158 metres on each side, 26 metres high according to MuseoTorino and about 25 according to the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti fact sheet; the roof is made of sixteen independent "umbrella" modules 40 metres on each side, each resting on a tapered central pillar with radial steel beams, and the façades are glass walls with sun-breakers.[1][2] Sources give different areas — 47,000, 43,000 or 25,000 square metres — probably because they are measuring different things.[1][2][3] During Italia '61, twenty-three nations exhibited there.[4]
After 1961
After the exhibition it housed the International Training Centre of the International Labour Office; according to MuseoTorino the building was abandoned around the mid-1970s, while more recent sources speak of "about 13 years" or "over twenty years" of neglect.[1][5][6] In 2007 the State began the process of disposal and a shopping centre project was launched, opposed by local committees and environmentalists, entrusted to the company Pentagramma Piemonte, half owned by CDP Immobiliare and half by Gefim; in 2020 CDP acquired Gefim's shares and is today its sole owner.[7][2] In August 2015 a fire damaged the building.[1]
The redevelopment
In 2022 a planning variance passed by the City Council allowed for commercial, tertiary, healthcare and service functions; none of these scenarios has materialised.[7] On 20 September 2023 the Planning Committee visited the building together with CDP: stability checks had been carried out and part of the façade had been repainted in its original two tones of grey.[8] By April 2026 CDP had redone the roofing and secured the building together with the Soprintendenza, and the owner had dropped the shopping centre plan, but no alternative project exists; among the options discussed are a museum, a multi-storey car park and a conference hall seating five thousand.[9] On 7 April 2026 Mayor Stefano Lo Russo said the building "will not be a shopping centre" and that the international situation is complicating investment; rumours of interest from Qatar, reported by district councillors in 2025, have not been confirmed by the city's planning commissioner.[10][7][9]
Related articles: Italia '61
Pages linking here
Sources
- MuseoTorino
- Cassa Depositi e Prestiti
- Biblioteche civiche torinesi
- Torino Oggi — 20 September 2026
- Torino Oggi — 4 February 2025
- Consiglio comunale di Torino — 19 March 2026
- Torino Oggi — 11 June 2025
- CittAgorà, Consiglio comunale di Torino — 21 September 2023
- Torino Oggi — 3 April 2026
- Torino Oggi — 7 April 2026