The Hexagon’s Persistent Presence: Frank Lloyd Wright and The Architecture of Olivetti

Abstract Analysis of two unique buildings and their landscapes among the UNESCO recognized modern industrial city of Ivrea calls for an examination of their geometric forms and the ideas they represent. This research interrogates evident influences of the pre-war work of Frank Lloyd Wright as it informed these coincident structures designed by Italian Rationalist architects on the Olivetti Company campus in the 1950s. Since each of the Olivetti commissions differs formally from all past work by their renowned designers, their intentions and buildings provoke questions, and in both cases correlations of culture and mathematical form offer answers. Wright’s ideas about organic design had been fully embraced by members of Bruno Zevi’s APAO ( Associazione per Architettura Organica ) which remained at odds with the MSA ( Il Movimento per gli Studi di Architettura) with which Figini, Pollini, and Gardella were affiliated. Their notable works of architecture that demonstrate four performative principles of the hexagon present an opportunity for reflection on geometry’s capacity to connect and signify.