Human Digital Hub, a project combining the best of Italy’s industrial history with the country’s digital future, is under starter’s orders.
ICO Valley (standing for Ivrea, Canavese, Olivetti) comes in the wake of the naming of Ivrea, “industrial city of the 20th century”, as a Unesco
World Heritage Site.
An initiative conceived in 2018 by Italian Senator Virginia Tiraboschi, the first Human Digital Hub required almost two years of work culminating in the formation of the Promoters Committee on June 26, 2020, and the presentation today, in the Conference Hall at Palazzo Uffici in Ivrea, of the revamping project for the Olivetti buildings, to be the iconic location of the first Italian Human Digital Hub.
“Thanks to the Olivetti buildings,” explains Senator Tiraboschi, “Ivrea will resume its central position on the Turin-Milan axis as the protagonist of a XXI century industrial revival based once again on technological innovation. Technology reduces distances. By reversing the city/periphery paradigm, it puts the spotlight on areas of the interior like the Canavese, an environmental unicum in terms of quality of life and services, where the concept of community Adriano Olivetti held so dear returns in a contemporary setting thanks to fifth-generation technologies that foster the development of Smart and Digital Communities and the immaterial economy.”
ICO Valley intends to represent good national practice for the redevelopment of former industrial sites – the historic buildings that were the setting for the splendid Olivetti story – through an innovative union between “container and content”. A winning synergy that will bring positive consequences for the local community and establish a national and international reference model.
Thanks to promotion by Prelios SGR as manager of the Anastasia Fund, which owns the buildings, the ICO Valley industrial project involves the participation and support of important local and national public entities, associations and private bodies. The project will allocate significant space to training activities, as well as areas where companies can optimize sharing of competences and expertise. Supplementary services such as shopping malls and hospitality areas will also be organized.
“We are proud to have promoted and played an active part in this initiative,” said Alessandro Busci, Head of Fund Management at Prelios SGR S.p.A. “ICO Valley is a motor of true urban re-generation, not only for the redevelopment and repositioning of the properties, but also for the creation of a digital economy industry park leveraging the history, skills and excellences of Italy and of this particular geographical area. Consistently with Prelios SGR’s focus on advanced ESG principles, this investment aims to have positive effects on the real economy as part of an approach combining impact investing and public-private partnership.”