The Creation of a Commercial Archetype. The Olivetti Showrooms of Correa and Milá

Abstract

Numerous architects, designers and artists left their mark on the constructions and interventions of the Olivetti company. All contributed to the “Olivetti style”, and yet research concerning their commercial spaces has for the most part focused solely on the work of their Italian architects and designers. The over thirty stores designed by Spanish architects Federico Correa and Alfonso Milá for the Spanish subsidiary Hispano Olivetti established an important and innovative approach to a cohesive and consistent brand identity beyond the Italian peninsula that is deserving of study in and of itself. Hispano Olivetti was established following a 1928 meeting between engineer Camilo Olivetti and Julio Capará. Engineer Riccardo Berla, its Managing Director, commissioned Catalan architects Correa y Milá to create an “Olivetti image” for the range of showrooms that were to be opened or refurbished throughout the country at the end of the 1960s. Gillo Dorfles considered the pair to be the best Spanish interior designers of the time. They were close to the teachings of José Antonio Coderch and had been influenced by the architecture of Ignazio Gardella and Franco Albini, as well as the theories of Ernesto Nathan Rogers. This research approach the showrooms of Correa and Milá for Hispano Olivetti, many of which were visited and highly praised by Gae Aulenti, who herself was leading the Paris and Buenos Aires Olivetti projects at the time. We consider that they constituted a rupture with the traditionalism that was the norm in Spain at the end of the decade. Their projects also highlight the way in which the authors developed a method of design for the showrooms that served them as fertile ground for architectural experimentation. They succeeded in defining a corporate image for the society through a comprehensive plastic unity that was then adapted to each specific location. This was to become an unprecedented commercial archetype within the Spanish urban landscape.