At the Salone del Mobile, we don't know with how much delight of the insiders, the presence of the automotive industry has become more decisive with the 21st century: the memory of direct experiences has been associated with that of an article that appeared in a remote (ten years ago!) number of "Abitare" (Living). By the architect and teacher Fabrizio Gallati, he had caused some controversy at the time, with that somewhat treacherous underlining of how a larger presence had not contributed at all to clarify a long story of complex relationships: "either the pillar is placed right there, where the mirror does not frame it, and it will chip the paint on the side, or the streamlined lines of the bodywork will make the building that should be the backdrop to the car seem static and awkward. Not many people have designed both architecture and cars in the few cases where this happened, the expressive languages used in the two cases have remained separate. At most, there was a minimum assonance between furniture and cars ..."
Exactly. Or did something happen in the meantime? To scroll through the list of car appearances in the "out-of-salon", as "evidence of attention to the world of architecture and forms", we meet previews of new cars or concepts in the name of stylistic and ecological research, or variations on the theme of the logo and customizations of models by young or old designers, up to the simple association of cars and various events: the proposals that seem most to answer our question are still and only the "design-talks" and the search for a language at least shared between automotive and residential décor.
The question is however complicated. The relationship between "containing" and "content", in the case of industrial architecture, in which the automotive industry will be located, is already at the beginning a mix of practical needs, of "paternalistic magniloquence" (R.Raja- "Architecture: history, meaning and design") and of immediate tensions between the idea of architecture of the clients and that of the architects. "The engines were tremendous beasts, generating anxiety for the unknown; to appease these new demons, the first industrialists were careful to adopt a classical architectural style in line with tradition, for the public facade of their factories. (G. Darley- "Factories. Origins and development of industrial architecture").
However, the steam engine made it possible to break free from direct dependence on water and wind and to place the plant near the raw materials and the communication and distribution channels. The growing size of work machines also required new and larger, safer, and in the relatively near future gas-fired light environments. At the beginning of the 19th century Palladio's style was abandoned for a return to functionality and solidity; the keystone for further transformations was iron, used from the middle of the century also for the same production tools, while between the end of the 19th century and the 10th years of the 20th century reinforced concrete and the Fordist factory, with its assembly lines and the new spaces they require, made the transition to the industrial landscape of the last century. "The specific nature of the organization of the industrial process determines the plan and form of the construction" (R.Raja). With iron and concrete, "revolutionary load-bearing structures are possible, while the shape and structure of the building itself tend to become one. And the building site itself becomes - like the factory - "a place where prefabricated pieces produced in series elsewhere are assembled, while the building is inspired by the logic of its destination, with large windows, clean and simple lines and the disappearance of that architectural lie that are the arches", so, at least, the prophets of functionalism. "Behind" this, of course, is the problem of repetitive and dehumanizing work, as Chaplin recounted in "Modern Times": but, "in front", the passage "to the neo-capitalist phase of dialogue and confrontation with the "fine arts" and design, always with a view to recovering productivity and economic and social advantage". Raja also notes that the architect is asked again and again only to give "artistic dignity" to a system that is rigid in itself.
Electricity and motor vehicles, symbols of the new era, "are produced in steel and reinforced concrete buildings built according to the latest technical findings but buried under coverings of classical masonry and conventional ornaments, recovered from civil architecture and contemporary art, to decorate completely exterior. "In short, the second industrial revolution - and the car - could not produce an architecture that translated their new aesthetic and dynamic values.