Casa Blu

La Casa Blu was designed in 1955 by Eduardo Vittorio and was the R&D Centre for Olivetti. It was the main site for IDII acting as a space for the staff, administration, students and guests. It included a basement workshop space for physical computing, a ground floor lecture theatre, library & chill-out space, a rarely used reception area, a first floor studio space for students and lecture rooms, a second floor with offices for staff and a top floor for the directors & management. The building was surrounded by patios all around and had a distinctive blue tiling. As of November 2019, it has been taken over by Olivetti again as a site for 80 people and the home of the first 5G antenna in Ivrea.

Basement workshop — Basement physical prototyping workshop.

Physical computing workshop — Basement physical computing workshop.

Nicholas Zambetti at his desk — Nicolas Zambetti in the physical computing workshop.

Yaniv Steiner's gaming workshop — Presenting to Yaniv Steiner some basic physically-enabled flash games in the basement workshop.

Haiyan Zhang working on her Tok Tok project. — Haiyan Zhang working on her Tok Tok project in the basement physical computing workshop.

Chai-Ying Lee & Ana Camila Amorim filming in the library.

Watching the 2004 American elections in the library.

Colla Bolla by Jennifer Bove being demoed in the lobby.

Eduardo Brambilla fixing the Fiat 500 exhibit. — Eduardo Brambilla fixing the Fiat 500 exhibit in the lobby.

Announcement of a lecture by Bill Verplank.

Bill Verplank's classic presentation on the history of interaction design. — Bill Verplank’s classic presentation on the history of interaction design.

Lecture theatre. — Lecture theatre on the ground floor.

Ralph Ammer in an exhibition design class. — Ralph Ammer in an exhibition design class on the first floor.

Lecture room on first floor during exhibition design project.

Students with their iMacs which were given on arrival. — Students in the studio with their iMacs which were given on arrival.

View from lecture room. — View of the building from lecture room.