Milan, January 16, 2019 – Yesterday evening, the MAXXI Museum (National Museum for 21st Century Arts) in Rome hosted the official presentation of “PATRIMONIO D’INGEGNO – INTELLECTUAL HERITAGE.” The project was organized by Maire Tecnimont Group to promote its historical, technical and cultural identity, through a complex work of recovery of the vast company archives that contain a rich patrimony of material narrating decades of construction work, both in Italy and worldwide.
The first archival collection that has been organised and is now accessible – the archives of the former Fiat Engineering Company that merged with our Group – has an estimated value of €26 million. It is protected by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and contains an array of projects developed in collaboration with renowned Italian and international architects and engineers.
The event was the first step of an ambitious programme that will lead to the creation of a true museum of Italian Engineering, an experience centre, to be located at the Milan Headquarters. The museum will include all the Group’s company archives - some currently still in the process of being catalogued- from the Tecnimont Archive (heir to the Montecatini – Montedison Group) and that of KT–Kinetics Technology in Rome, as well as the Dutch Stamicarbon, the German TPI and the Indian Tecnimont Pvt Ltd in Mumbai.
The evening also served as an opportunity to present the two volumes of Fiat Engineering Projects 1931-1979 and 1980-2008 (Silvana Editoriale). The essays, project profiles and rich photographic material cover the Group’s history through a selection of the most significant project experiences that have marked civil and industrial development: Quaroni, Danusso, Covre, Albini, Nervi, Morandi, Zevi, Aulenti, Gabetti, Isola, Piano, Halprin, Rogers, and Krier are just a few of the famous names that have contributed to the projects illustrated in the publications. The archive is made up of 7000 filing boxes, 6000 reports and 65,000 microfilms, as well as notes, project reports and photographs.
“PATRIMONIO D’INGEGNO – INTELLECTUAL HERITAGE”, officially opened with a presentation by Margherita Guccione, Director MAXXI Architecture; Fabrizio Di Amato, Maire Tecnimont Chairman and Majority Shareholder; Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont Group CEO; Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, President of Italo, Telethon, Manifatture Sigaro Toscano, Paolo Mellano, Director of the Department of Architecture and Design, Turin Polytechnic University; Tullia Iori, Professor of Structural Engineering History (SIXXI), “Tor Vergata” University of Rome and Francesco Karrer,Professor of Urban Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome.
Fabrizio Di Amato, commented: “Our Group was born from the integration of the best Italian knowledge and competences in the Engineering Sector, and our commitment is to promote their timeless value. After all, without memory, it is hard to say whether we are progressing along the road of innovation. This is the first stage of a journey that will take us to a museum of our engineering.”
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