Iconic Factory Retrofits Deck with Biodiverse Green Roof

Through the efforts of architecture firm Benedetto Camerana, the iconic factory, formerly known as the Lingotto FIAT in Turin, Italy, retrofits the test track with flowers to create a biodiverse green roof.

Since 1923, the test track has been a circular area where gasoline-powered FIAT cars zoomed after ascending five floors of the factory.

The structure is a modernist landmark. Reyner Banham, a critic and historian, wrote about how it inspired everyone because in the 1920s all the real modernists had already climbed the ramps and taken photos of themselves while standing on the roof.

Lloyd Alter, a design editor for Treehugger, shared that he visited the test track in 2012. Alter recalls that at that time, Italian architect Renzo Piano had renovated a large portion of the structure. The portion of the building on the roof if the iconic factory with a restaurant was occupied, but the rest of the roof was empty and a missed opportunity.

Stellantis, formerly FIAT, has now commissioned La Pista 500, which Pinacoteca Agnelli has curated.

According to reports, the 45,000 local biodiversity specimens representing 300 species that were planted in the extra-large plant basins near the test track have thrived with very little assistance from humans. The vegetation has grown naturally and merged even more with the track's surface.

Open to Public, Open to a Variety of Purposes

It showcases artistic and environmental installations and is accessible to the general public. It has also been reported that athletes will be able to jog on the track winding through the roof garden or practice yoga and meditation in designated spaces amidst the flower and herb basins.

Although there were still cars on the track, the vehicles do not run on gasoline. The installations there are by artists Nina Beier, Shilpa Gupta, VALIE EXPORT, Mark Leckey, Sylvie Fleury, Louise Lawler, and Cally Spooner. Auto enthusiasts will have the chance to test drive the brand-new electric Fiat 500 on Mondays, which are specifically set aside for them.

The test track's tighter turns and narrower width appear to present difficulties for those electric Fiats. But if necessary, they could probably be moved around, Treehugger reports.

Will Jennings, a British journalist, says that if Fiat decides to put it back to another use, it can all be easily picked up and moved away because it is all in shallow planters. Jennings talked about how eager he was to see the biodiverse green roof.

Track to Flower Trays

Giacomo Mattè-Trucco, an architect and engineer, is credited with inventing futurism one hundred years ago. Italians were enthralled by automobiles and the industrial age, and the country had the biggest factory in the world.

The track was the centerpiece of the structure, according to a young architect named Edoardo Persico, who also noted that the building as a whole was conceptually and architecturally built to worship cars and speed.

Alter was very enthusiastic about the switch from using the track for gas-powered cars to having it covered in flowers and having a few quiet electric Fiat 500s weave through the planters. What a beautiful green transformation, both in terms of architecture and thought.