Design and creativity have played a crucial role in transforming the city landscape, with several examples witnessing the shift from being ‘one-company town’ in the 20th century to Torino’s current identity: from the Heritage Hub in the area of the former Officina 81, a historic Fiat mechanical manufacturing factory in Mirafiori neighbourhood, now home to a collection of 300 vehicles, to the new lives of the epic race-track on the roof of Lingotto (a former Fiat factory), once used to test cars and now home to an amazing exhibition of contemporary art curated by Pinacoteca Agnelli.
In a city deeply rooted and specialised in automotive design, the MAUTO - Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile tells the historical evolution of cars and their new meanings through temporary exhibitions and a permanent display of original vehicles going through the transformations of society.
The areas of great factories have been restored and recovered in multiple ways. The OGR - Officine Grandi Riparazioni, formerly a factory for the maintenance of railway vehicles, is now a hub dedicated to the new languages of the contemporary scene, to innovation and start-up accelerators. PAV - Parco Arte Vivente is a living art park conceived by the artist Piero Gilardi in the area of FramTek, formerly a factory manufacturing car components and now home to a permanent workshop experimenting how the languages of art and design can offer reflections on environmental issues.
And then, Edit, the catering and entertainment hub based in the area of ex Incet, an electric wire manufacturer, and the environmental recovery of Parco Dora, a former Fiat steel plant area now turned into a post-industrial plant, where great events and music festivals take place, like the Kappa Future Festival, but also a public space capable of welcoming spontaneous creativity. Finally, the Orti Generali, an urban farm, community garden and educational hub with a kiosk open to the public, created after the park redevelopment in the southern outskirts of Mirafiori neighbourhood along the Sangone river. Witnessing the deep-rooted design culture in Torino is the presence since 2015 of the Circolo del Design, a cultural production center that devotes its activities to deepening and promoting the value of contemporary design.