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Leuman Village - Collegno-Torino
Built between 1875 and 1907 under the direction of Pietro Fenoglio, leading exponent of art nouveau architecture in Turin, the Villaggio Leumann is Italy’s prime historic example of a planned, self-contained workers’ community.
Around 1000 people lived there for much of the 20th century, in around 120 family apartments with flushing loos and shared gardens, and in a boarding house for single workers. The visionary industrial village had its own school, gym, church, public bathhouse, cooperative food store, post office, hotel and railway station, but also refectory, medical, daycare and sports facilities, all conveniently arranged beside the cotton mill, the workplace.
The vision was that of Napoleone Leumann, after he and his father Isaac transferred the family business to the site in 1875, then on the outskirts of Turin, lured by incentives to attract industry to the city and by the vicinity of irrigation canals and the new railway linking Collegno to Turin and on under the Alps to France.
Leumann imagined housing his workforce close to the Cotonificio, but also believed that their well-being was good for production. So he commissioned the ground-breaking self-contained model, a district which included all those services required for family and social life, free time and welfare; one in which the architecture itself furthered the concept of a functional and socially-advanced community.
When the mill closed in the early 1970s, a concerted effort saved the village practically intact. Today, the social housing is owned and assigned by the local authority, and an ad hoc Asssociation oversees the renovation of community buildings. The whole area is an Ecomuseum, preserving and showcasing a singular example of material culture. TAKEN FROM THE SITE www.urbanitaly.com/architecture/collegno-village-life.html
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