Esselunga Lingottino Reuse, Turin

Description

Designed by Carmassi Studio di Architettura with Studio Mellano Associati, Esselunga Lingottino Reuse, Turin was developed within the broader redevelopment of the former FIAT Grandi Motori complex in Turin. Publicly documented sources identify the intervention as part of the mixed-use transformation of the former industrial enclosure, with commercial, residential, tertiary and public-service functions, and explicitly attribute to Carmassi Studio di Architettura and Studio Mellano Associati the commercial complex integrated into the multipurpose building along corso Vercelli. The wider plan addressed a historically important industrial site that, although embedded in the consolidated city and aligned with the main urban axes, had long remained substantially closed to urban life. In the preliminary urban vision published by Studio Nonis, the redevelopment was intended to convert this monofunctional industrial compound into an articulated and lively urban complex, integrated with the surrounding neighbourhood and connected to a new system of public spaces and services. Within this framework, the commercial component can be described as a project of urban reuse rather than simple retail insertion. The intervention did not treat the supermarket as an autonomous object, but as part of a broader strategy of reconnection between the former factory grounds and the city. Its role was to activate the frontage on corso Vercelli, give new use to the existing large-scale industrial structure and contribute to the transformation of the area into a new mixed district while maintaining the architectural memory of the site’s principal buildings. This reading is consistent with the public description of the masterplan, which emphasises both urban reopening and preservation of the identity of the main industrial structures. According to the studio’s internal chronology, the commercial scheme was later developed to a definitive design stage in 2008 for Esselunga, but it was not carried out after the client withdrew from the operation in the changed economic and commercial context of Turin during the 2008 crisis. The project therefore remains an unbuilt proposal within the longer and later transformation history of the ex Grandi Motori area.