«Cecchetti, the Olivetti of Civitanova. But the underpass is still missing today”

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«Cecchetti, yesterday a famous metalworking factory, today a testimony of Italian architecture». The engineer Giorgio Medori entrusts Cronache Maceratesi with his reflections in the aftermath of the conference and exhibition that the Rotary of Civitanova organized on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the closure of the “Cecchetti”, the centuries-old factory in the heart of the city which changed the city ​​economy and today the urban layout. Medori retraces both the “historical” and “urban planning” aspects after the transformation of the warehouses into apartments designed by the famous Milanese architect Vittorio Gregotti

«In addition to the historical memory of the famous metalworking factory – explains Medori – also highlighted with the historical photos exhibited at Lido Cluana in the south building and the masterfully reconstructed model with all the industrial warehouses, what emerged from the conference speakers was the figure of the creator of Cecchetti, (later Società Gestioni Industriali) in the top person of Adriano Cecchetti compared to Adriano Olivetti in his innovative, far-sighted vision, both from an industrial point of view and from an innovative point of view in relations with the workers. Unfortunately, with the succession of owners, it was not possible to maintain the knowledge and the metalworking activity of the first national level. It is true that then sociologically with the first downsizing of the 60s, the city began other industrial craft activities mainly in the footwear sector, but the loss of the metalworking activity which ranged from railway construction to naval construction has certainly impoverished the city’s qualified productive force”.

«Then to highlight the urban history of the area of ​​approx 10 hectares that in the 1978 “Salmoni” master plan allocated 3 cubic meters for every square meter of buildings – continues the engineer – There was talk that the building had to be decentralized for the volumes granted, but the volumetric exchange with the moving of the headquarters was never imposed in new industrial areas. The new Secchi plan with the prefectural commissioner adopted the “Cecchetti” variant in 1995 with the double compliance with Prg 1978 and the new Prg variant three days before the election of mayor Marinelli. The variant was approximately halved in volume created by the Gregotti studio, a well-known Milanese architect which certainly left an important mark of Italian architecture that can be admired by walking around the neighborhood.”

The visit to the exhibition

«Unfortunately, negative notes – underlines Medori – are the lack of political foresight of both the centre-right and centre-left municipalities in Macerata, headquarters of the urban planning control offices, due to the non-application of the regional law of the time on appurtenant parking spaces of 0.4 m2 per m2 instead of 0.8 m2 per m2 for the ground floors intended for commercial purposes. In fact, today the difficulty in parking is very evident. The detailed plan of notable architectural value is characterized today by non-construction of the underpass on via Trieste for the simple fact that the guarantee policy of 6.4 billion lire has remained the same (with the alternation of city governments) converted into euros to date by approximately 3.3 million euros (see costs of the underpass via Roma in Macerata more than doubled). It should be noted that the greenery which is barely usable due to its positioning which has become a “non-place” should be rethought for a new agora of the neighborhood and the city”.

Thirty years ago Cecchetti closed, «the pioneer founder of social welfare»