A Factory with a Garden: Working in Full Colour at Olivetti

The essay examines how twentieth-century industrial design redefined the relationship between labour, technology, and nature. Gosetti’s discussion of Olivetti, the Italian typewriter firm known for its distinctive corporate ethos, shows how the company refused the conventional opposition between factory and landscape, Instead, it integrated production spaces with green spaces, creating an industrial environment that was simultaneously efficient, humane, and aesthetically considered. Using the Pozzuoli factory as a case study, the essay highlights Olivetti’s attention to the material and spiritual well-being of workers, through social services, architectural and aesthetic interventions, and opportunities for personal development. Key principles such as globality, rootedness, and community demonstrate how industrial spaces were reimagined, with gardens as integral components of a productive and ethically oriented workplace. In this context, the garden becomes a space, negotiating the relations between technology, labour, and nature, and offering a striking reinterpretation of the “machine in the garden” motif.