International Competition

Here is a description of the project

Olivexa is a project that reactivates the unfinished spatial order of Olivetti in Ivrea. Ivrea was not simply an industrial city, but a place where industry, education, culture, architecture, and nature were envisioned as part of a collective social system.

For Olivetti, architecture was never just a backdrop for production, but a medium for imagining a better way of living and working together.

The project extends this vision into a contemporary campus environment. Based on the unrealized library masterplan and the never-built third structure, the theatre, educational spaces, coworking areas, housing, and community facilities are reorganized as a connected spatial system. Rather than replicating the existing architecture, the proposal extracts spatial principles found throughout Ivrea — triangular grids, hexagonal structures, and the continuity of the portico — and reinterprets them as an organizational framework for the new intervention.

The theatre becomes the central element of the project. More than a performance hall, it acts as the civic core of the OLI Institute, connecting the campus with the city. The foyer and plaza extend outward into coworking spaces, lounges, parks, and bridges, allowing performances, lectures, meetings, rest, and everyday encounters to unfold within a continuous spatial flow rather than as isolated events.

The portico becomes the primary architectural language of connection. It mediates between the existing and the new, softens the boundary between interior and exterior, and creates semi-open spaces where people can walk, pause, and gather. Bridges are not treated merely as circulation elements, but as spatial devices that establish visual and social relationships between different programs.

Ultimately, Olivexa does not preserve Olivetti’s legacy as a fixed monument of the past. Instead, it reinterprets it as an open campus structure that supports education, entrepreneurship, living, and cultural exchange. Through this transformation, the industrial heritage of Ivrea is reactivated as a place where people can once again learn, work, stay, and connect.

[Project Team]

• XA Lab : Master’s student Hyun Min Choi

• Collaborators : Choi Wonwoo(Sejong University), Hyun Seunghyuk(Sejong University)