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Pettinature Riunite

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This industrial monolith still receives you while entering in the city of Biella. The austere look and the size immediately recall in you some architectural styles as functionalism and italian rationalism (Modern Movement). And so it is. The “Pettinature” (combing works) was designed by Giuseppe Pagano, a famous italian architect, between 1939 and 1942. Commisioned by the Rivetti’s, wool manufacturers active since 1872, the new combing works was the first “modern” factory built in Biella. In this historical wool industry region, mills used to be designed directly by the owner, conceived as “space for machineries”, where workers have to fit. Pagano, supporter of functionalism, decided to create something different. Keywords: light, efficiency, flexibility and economy. The finished complex was promoted in 1942 on the most important italian architecture magazine, Casabella. The national and international echo was pretty loud. The factory is composed of two different blocks: a long five-storey building for initial operations (selection, washing, drying) and a wide shed hall to host large combing machineries. Raw wool was moved from the underground warehouse to the top of the vertical building by an external conveyor belt, then the working process proceeded top-down to the shed hall. That one is provided of parabolic sheds, to better guide the daylight right on the machineries, helping workers in this way. Due to Rivetti’s empire decline in the late 60s, the complex was sold to a new company called “Pettinature Riunite” (united combing works), which hosted combing operations for many different wool mills. It was closed in 1992.

1942 - The vertical building

1942 - The shed hall