Piero Ferrari, left, and priest at the benediction of the first stone. Photo copyright Mario Marchesini.
By Pete Vack
About 300 meters from the Maserati factory on Viale Ciro Menotti in Modena, there is a complex of old brick buildings; a small house and shop, hidden beyond an ancient grey brick wall and entrance.
They are unpretentious, almost decrepit, and in the past have housed illegal immigrants from North Africa. The address has changed through the years, from 264 Via Camurri, to 85 Via Paolo Ferrari.
This is where Enzo Ferrari was born in 1898, and the shop was where his father Alfredo ran a metal working business. “We lived in a modest house in the suburbs,” recalled Ferrari in his memoirs. “I shared one of the rooms above the workshop with my brother, and we were woken up by the hammering every morning when the men started work.”
85 Via Paolo Ferrari has changed little over the years, but has been overlooked, as the smaller nearby town of Maranello, home the Ferrari factory, has drawn the attention of the motoring world. Modena, however, was not only Ferrari’s hometown. For years, Enzo Ferrari did much of his business, not at Maranello, but at his offices in a grand workshop at Trento e Trieste 11, close to the Romanesque Duomo in Modena.
Ferrari’s original headquarters in Modena
served the company from 1929 to the 1980s,
when the address became a parking garage.
Photo by Carol Seielstad.
Even after the new factory was built in Maranello in 1943, the Trento e Trieste building was the site of the company offices and the customer service division. This eventually gave way, in the 1970s, to a new building for Ferrari service. In the 1980s, that building was torn down and replaced by a parking garage. Ferrari’s birthplace at 264 Via Camurri was ignored and left to undesirable tenants. Enzo Ferrari’s Modena seems to have disappeared, while in Maranello, everything went upscale as Ferrari became an Italian, then international, icon.
The planned layout as conceived by Future Systems. Photo courtesy Future Systems.
But change is underway in Modena. On April 20th, the cornerstone was laid for the new Enzo Ferrari Museum, located on the site of his birthplace and will be devoted to Ferrari’s life and work, complete with cars, memorabilia, photos, films and displays. To house this collection, a completely new building will be constructed, designed by the late Czech architect Jan Kaplicky. It is reminiscent of a hood with louvers, the color is a brilliant fly yellow, not Ferrari red, and will actually arc over the small two-story house in which Ferrari was born. The winning design came from London-based Future Systems, which beat seven international rivals to clinch the contract. It is hoped that it will be completed by 2011.
The Enzo Ferrari Museum will be part of a greater project to create Motor Valley, a tourist attraction which highlights the various motor sports activities in the area around Modena. The Motor Valley attraction will include the Galleria Ferrari at the company’s headquarters in nearby Maranello, as well as highlight the area between Modena and Imola, which is home to DeTomaso, Lamborghini, Maserati and Ducati motorcycles. The city hopes to attract as many as 200,000 visitors a year.
VeloceToday‘s “Eye on Italy” photographer Mario Marchesini was invited to the groundbreaking ceremony, and attended with his friend and race driver Alex Pignone, met Piero Ferrari, and took a few photos. All too soon it was over but the Italians never forget the really important stuff.
“At the end of the ceremony,” wrote Marchesini, “there was a standing refreshment of excellent local food consisting of Parmesan cheese, Parmesan raw ham; local fresh tigella bread; local red wine; local pie. Everything was excellent!”
A press conference before the ceremony. At the far left, the mayor of Modena, and Piero Ferrari second from left. “They all said about the same thing. “Finally we will have a museum dedicated to the Great Enzo Ferrari.” Photo copyright Mario Marchesini.
No longer will these gates be passed over. Note the “85” on the post at right. Photo copyright Mario Marchesini.
The new design placed before the old building, on which you can read the original letters “Ferrari.” Photo copyright Mario Marchesini.
The widow of the Czech architect Jan Kaplicky, who passed away in January 2009. Photo copyright Mario Marchesini.
A detail image of the planned museum. Photo copyright Mario Marchesini.
How is that building, in any way, cohesive with the surrounding architecture? It looks like a prehistoric trilobite. I sincerely hope this fad of constructing bizarre buildings ends soon.
George
OK, the proposed building looks like something from a car but please, get rid of the garish yellow color. Something more in keeping with the color of the surrounding roofs is much more appropriate IMHO.
It’s big, it’s bold and it stands out like a sore thumb. It’s Ferrari.
Why would you go to pains to repeat an allegation that immigrants were living in Enzo Ferrari’s birth house and later on refer to “undesirable tenants”? My grandparents were immigrants to our country and contributed mightily to achieve a substantial degree of respectability and prosperity. Is it too hard to imagine that at least some of those in comparable circumstances in Italy today might follow a similar path? In addition to being needlessly harsh, the “undesirable” mention is also historically incorrect. For decades, “Casa Natale Ferrari” was occupied by the Zironi family. By all accounts, they were fully aware of its history and looked after the place very carefully, including the pink marble staircase of which Enzo Ferrari had fond childhood memories. Ferrari was even known to visit from time to time. I visited this house a few times myself as recently as 2004. I always found the occupants to be kindhearted, even to the point of allowing a traveler to walk around the place and take photos. In the future, perhaps it might be best to avoid what inevitably become political issues and to dig a bit deeper before making a negative assertion.
the reason this is so not Ferrari is that it has obviously been designed from the outside in. Ferrari s have always been about performance, at least the best of them. this building is one ego’s opinion of moonlight and is unfortunately the current state of superficial, impressionistic design. and by the way…. shouldn t it just be red anyway. i found the first arguments for “blending in” to be trite and all for quaintalism. how boringly cute. we don t need anymore contextualism. i m for doing something that is truly evolutionary. unfortunately ego driven impressionism is not new and not on the cutting edge. no essence of ferrari hear i fear.
Dear Marc,
Your views are very welcome, as they indicate to us that readers such as yourself treat news reports as written in VeloceToday seriously and therefore object to any spurious phrases.
We based our comments on reports published by several Italian news sources, two being http://www.sassuolo2000, http://www.sassuolo2000.it/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid =
50731 50731 and http://www.bologna2000, as well as first hand knowledge of a native of Bologna.
Politics did not play any role.
Pete Vack,
Editor, VeloceToday
I like the design. If you look at it from the side, from the perspective of a person rather from above, it doesn’t really over power as much as it does in the model view or aerial view. The louvers work much as the curved shapes do in the Sydney opera house.
Building a Tuscan or Emilia Romagna style building to house Mr.Ferrari’s story would have been a discredit to the boldness of his cars. A modern design can amplify more “traditional” designs much like I.M Pei’s did at the Louvre. The design seems to say “from this humble building you have this”. It’s too bad the architect won’t see it completed.
REALLY like the photos of Mario Marchesini!
would like to see some more of his photos published.
Isn’t FLY the color of Modena?
I think it looks right.
OK , it’s a design that “jumps out” the enviroment… and is véry different and with a futuristic view …….
totally Enzo !!!!!
changing the world demands guts !
Stef Belgium
The choice of colour (yellow) is the way Mr Ferrari would have preferred it. He always maintained that the yellow colour of Modena should replace the red national colour of Italy which he disliked.
I’m surprised that no notice is being given to the house where Enzo and his wife lived most of their lives. It’s in the same vicinity on
Piazza Garibaldi
IMO they should have designed the museum to fit in with the local architecture instead of the usual brash styling of the usual modern building. It lacks class, taste, and character, along with disturbing the local views and characteristics. Although I’m not surprised that this wasn’t denied by the local authorities, with it being Ferrari and all. But there should have been a stricter policing of the architecture for the obvious reasons.