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The Olivetti Typotel: For God's sake, don't hit the Return key! Yes, this hotel was built to look like a
TYPEWRITER. (Remember those? Younger viewers can click here to see what a typewriter looks like.)See the top floor? Those are guest rooms. In the architect's vision, this floor was the "carriage" of the "typewriter"; the part that went whizzing back
to the left at high speed when you struck the Return key. I once stayed on this floor. It's an unsettling experience. The anticipation is unbearable. WHY?, you might ask. Olivetti is based an hour north of Milan, in Ivrea, a town
so tiny it can't cope with the influx of business visitors. Typewriter sales made Olivetti one of the richest corporations in Europe. So Olivetti built this thing. For a company known for its design sophistication, this is a
pretty astonishing lapse of judgment, and it must have caused a lot of head-shaking in the boardroom. Apparently, someone decided the best thing to do was just brazen it out, pretend they'd done it on purpose, and emblazon the
thing on post cards. Yes, there are more. Here's one
, if you really want to see it. Caption: (Repeats caption on front of card.)Credits: None. (They won't admit it.) |
