Lingotto. Test track or roof garden?

At the end of 2020, a ‘restyling’ of the iconic test track on the roof of the former FIAT Lingotto plant in Turin was announced. It is part of a larger project that intends to establish commercial activities in and around the multifunctional complex related to environmental sustainability and electric mobility. According to the team of architects led by Benedetto Camerana, the track will be transformed into an elevated park (or, more properly, a roof garden) inspired by the High Line, the linear park built on an abandoned elevated section of the New York Subway. Transforming the test runway of the Lingotto with a roof-garden turns the futuristic roof of FIAT into an ordinary rural street. Perhaps we need to courageously verify that there is still a lack of awareness of the values of the industrial heritage that is not overcome in architectural practice. Nobody, I hope, would permanently put creepers on Antonelli’s Mole or rural flower boxes on the balustrades of Palazzo Madama in Piazza Castello, but on the Lingotto it seems normal. AIPAI-TICCIH Italy is obviously and cordially ready for a debate.