OFFICINE MARCONI - Presentation

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Throbbing dynamos and turbines, plants and filaments; and then transformers of all shapes and sizes, switches, small valves, big valves. This is what the Romanina Italcable factory, which today aims to become Officine Marconi, looked like until a few years ago. And Guglielmo Marconi came here several times at the dawn of the last century: he set up and experimented that magical mystery that broadcast sounds and voices over the magnetic waves.

It was situated in the middle of nowhere, in the centre of a large plain at the foot of the Albani hills, still quite far from the city which at that point no-one would ever have imagined could catch up and embrace it. For decades an advanced factory in the electrotechnical field, then a call handling centre, a planet-wide bridge connecting Italy with the rest of the world via telephone.

Today it is still there, a fascinating piece of industrial archaeology. A large factory of around 4,000 square metres, divided up into three different buildings, the first built with great architectural taste, a prelude to that beautiful adventure in style that was to become Italian rationalism. Though no longer in the middle of nowhere, it is still a solitary place, only kept company by the long avenue of pine trees joining it to Via Tuscolana. And above all it is part of the large Romanina area, which the new town planning committee has decided must become a city within the city, the south-eastern passage of Rome’s future urban growth.

And it is equally as fascinating that a sizeable urban transformation is taking its first steps from an old building that housed a piece of scientific history, getting ready to start on a new journey, this time adventuring into the world of culture and art, shows and entertainment. This noble building will become a large cultural production centre, another magnificent experience to add to the now incredibly vast offer that is transforming Rome into an international capital of culture.

Officine Marconi will host the last evening of the Romaeuropa Festival, inaugurating this factory’s new lease of life, something we are sure will be on everyone’s lips.

text by Sandro Medici