A hard-working country

The process of industrialization of Italy is one of the indispensable thematic lenses to fully tell the story of our country. You cannot understand the languages of modern Italian, nor can you understand the achievements of our most famous engineers, without reflecting on the propulsive role of the so-called “economic miracle”.

The economic boom had the effect of directing architects and engineers towards innovative solutions, outlining the new image of a finally modern country.

The strong growth and technological development that followed the end of the Marshall Plan are reflected in a large number of industries, office and commercial buildings, warehouses, trade fair venues and infrastructures, partly collected in this thematic itinerary.

The itinerary combines shots of bridges and road infrastructures – the true backbones of the country – with photographs of some of the main hydroelectric and thermoelectric power plants, built from the Second World War to the present day. The story of some of the main national production complexes (Olivetti, Zanussi, Elmag, Mondadori, Benetton) is followed by images of market places, places of commerce and management centers.

The overall impression that one gets is that of a country that has kept pace with modernity. A country that is not only industrial, but industrious. A country capable, then as now, of investing in its future and of finding the expressive languages to convey an alternative identity to the one handed down to us by history and tradition, no less alive and interesting for that.