Una distesa di superfici piane ritmate da lunghe travi ovoidali. Olivetti Argentina, An expanse of flat surfaces rhythmised by long ovoid beams. Olivetti Argentina

The theme of valorisation - in the meaning of protection and conservation of the asset combined with recovery and re-functionalisation - of the industrial heritage is a paradigmatic field for several aspects. Among the wide range of variables, a crucial role is played by time, which unavoidably imposes different forms of degradation on the asset and contributes to a dilution and broadening of historical memory in the succession of generations. The process that led in the 1970s to the reconversion of the Olivetti Argentina factory to tobacco manufacturing reveals the attention placed on the artefact as a bearer of historical, cultural, and architectural values, and tells of a virtuous management in the reconversion process of a factory that would otherwise have risked a doom of abandonment and degradation. The great construction qualities through which it was realised demonstrate a still current validity from a functional, spatial, and distributive point of view, with flexible spaces that adapt to receive new production requirements. The Argentine case differs from what happened to the Brazilian factory, turned into a shopping centre in the 1990s. The two South American examples are now an opportunity to reflect on the different approaches in the protection and conservation of industrial heritage architecture, in view of the events that are currently concerning the Olivetti complex in Scarmagno, which is now involved in an innovative project that foresees its re-industrialisation.