Olivetti in Brazil: Zanuso’s Modular Factory Architecture

In the mid-20th century, Olivetti looked beyond Italy and built a factory in São Paulo, Brazil — reimagined by architect Marco Zanuso as an open, modular, and climate-conscious industrial space.

This episode explores how triangular domes, natural light, and design flexibility created a workspace ahead of its time, reflecting Olivetti’s unique blend of technology, humanism, and architecture.

Olivetti: Mechanical Calculator Advertising Campaigns
How do you make a calculating machine captivating?

From 1940 to 1970, Olivetti’s vision went beyond functionality — turning calculators into symbols of style, precision, and modernity. This episode explores how designers like Giovanni Pintori and Walter Ballmer transformed technical products into cultural icons through bold graphics, abstract shapes, and lifestyle storytelling.

Discover the creative strategies that built a brand image as innovative as its technology — and why even the best campaigns couldn’t stop the rise of electronics.

Natale Capellaro: Olivetti’s Self-Taught Genius Engineer

From apprentice to mastermind. This episode tells the extraordinary story of Natale Capellaro, the son of a shoemaker who became one of Olivetti’s most brilliant technical minds.

With no formal engineering degree, Capellaro revolutionized typewriter production and later designed groundbreaking mechanical calculators — making Olivetti a world leader in computation. A journey of talent, vision, and relentless curiosity.

Olivetti in Silicon Valley: from New Canaan to Cupertino

How did a historic Italian company find its way into the world of electronics and computing?
This episode traces Olivetti’s bold leap into innovation — from the experimental lab in New Canaan, USA, to the groundbreaking Elea computers developed at the Laboratorio di Ricerche Elettroniche in Italy.

We follow the rise, transformation, and revival of Olivetti’s electronic research, all the way to the opening of a new lab in Cupertino, in the heart of Silicon Valley.
A story of vision, technology, and a company that never stopped reinventing itself.

Poets in the Factory: When Culture Met Industry at Olivetti

From the 1940s to the 1980s, Olivetti invited poets, novelists, and intellectuals not to decorate his company — but to shape it. This episode explores how Olivetti built an enterprise where engineers worked alongside writers, and where culture was considered essential to progress.
 
Literary minds were placed in departments like advertising, HR, and social services, contributing to innovative communication, workplace well-being, and the soul of a visionary industrial model. Discover a story where economy met poetry — and both thrived.

People First: The Burzio Fund and Olivetti’s Social Vision

In 1932, Olivetti established the Domenico Burzio Fund, a quiet but powerful expression of corporate social responsibility. Named after the company’s first Technical Director — remembered for his deep humanity and care for workers — the fund offered discreet, personal support to employees in times of hardship.

This episode explores how Olivetti translated ethics into action, building a workplace culture rooted in dignity, trust, and solidarity — long before these values became standard in the business world.

Lexikon and Beyond: Olivetti’s Typewriting Revolution

From the mechanical elegance of the Lexikon 80 — a global success and MoMA design icon — to the era of electric and electronic innovation, this episode traces Olivetti’s professional typewriters as symbols of both form and function.

Discover how these machines helped shape the future of office technology, blending precision engineering, cutting-edge design, and a vision that would eventually lead to the world of personal computing.

Design in Every Detail: The Olivetti Store in Venice

This episode explores Olivetti’s belief that beauty and function should define not just its products, but its spaces — including its retail stores. At the heart of this vision stands the Venice showroom, designed in 1957 by Carlo Scarpa, a masterpiece of architecture, balance, and precision.

Set near St. Mark’s Square, the store embodied Olivetti’s identity through spatial elegance and material innovation. Though it later closed for economic reasons, today it lives on as a public museum thanks to the FAI, preserving both Scarpa’s genius and Olivetti’s cultural legacy.

Advertising as Art: Olivetti’s Visual Revolution

In the 1930s, Adriano Olivetti reimagined advertising—not as a tool to sell, but as a way to inspire. This episode explores how Olivetti’s campaigns became cultural artifacts, crafted in collaboration with artists and designers to evoke beauty, meaning, and emotion.

From iconic images like La rosa nel calamaio to the launch of the Studio 42, discover how Olivetti turned visual language into an enduring expression of its values and identity.

Dino Olivetti, the youngest son of founder Camillo Olivetti, played a pivotal yet often overlooked role in shaping the company’s international future. This episode traces Dino’s formative years abroad, his strategic push into the U.S. market, and his early advocacy for electronic innovation.

Despite internal conflicts, Dino left a lasting mark on Olivetti’s global vision.
Discover the man behind the company’s digital turn — and how his ideas resonated far beyond Ivrea.