IN/Arch, the National Institute of Architecture, was founded in 1959 by Bruno Zevi as a meeting place for the economic and cultural forces that participate in the building process to solicit continuous and direct action in the interest of the community. In July 2017, the Piedmont section of IN/Arch was founded, which, consistent with the founding principles of the Institute, provides an opportunity to open a new perspective and coagulate the energies and resources interested in architecture understood as a horizon of civil living, a tool for social and territorial quality.
IN/Arch members are: engineers, architects, builders, economic operators, public and private companies, scholars, connoisseurs and lovers of architecture, associations, public and private institutions. In Piedmont, DIST PoliTO, Ance Piemonte, Confindustria Piemonte, and several companies are also supporting members.
IN/Arch Piemonte’s initiatives are numerous: training courses and meetings on sustainability, urban regeneration actions, creation of networks for the development of urban and mountain areas, and urging administrations to build policies and measures for the quality of architecture, work and development.
We have carried out initiatives together with : Urban Lab, Città Metropolitana, Comune di Torino, Circoscrizione 7, Camera di Commercio Torino, Politecnico di Torino, Festival Tecnologia PoliTO, SocialFare, Collegio Carlo Alberto, Banca Etica, CNA, Confesercenti, Collegio Costruttori, ATC Torino, Associazione Etica e Sport, Torino Stratosferica, UNCEM Piemonte, Antel – Associazione Nazionale Tecnici Enti Locali, Consorzio KAIROS, Mercato Circolare, Polo del ‘900, Unione culturale F. Antonicelli, UNESCO Giovani, Solco Onlus, Associazione Genitori Insieme, Educadora Onlus, Fondazione Architettura Torino, Formedil, IC Settimo, ASIFA Italia, Amate l’Architettura, ALI – Autonomie Locali Italiane, Film Commission Torino Piemonte, Cinema Multisala Petrarca, Comune di Settimo Torinese, Rete Comuni Sostenibili, Fondazione ECM, Istituto Comprensivo Torino II, Cartoon Italia – Associazione delle Aziende Italiane di Animazione, Robin Studio. Forming collaboration protocols with some of them: Urban Lab, Formedil, Antel, Mou Innovaree.
In addition to the regional initiatives, as a section of a national cultural institute, scattered throughout almost all Italian regions, the IN/Architecture Awards, carried out in collaboration with Ance and Archilovers, have been implemented in the long and prestigious tradition of the IN/ARCH awards, which, since the first edition in 1962, have played a major role in the national architectural debate. In the same way, IN/Arch Piemonte has collaborated in the various editions of the SEED Design for future Festival, organized by the national, to bring together designers, architects and engineers, urban planners together with artists, scientists, philosophers, psychologists, economists, academics and entrepreneurs in a dialectical confrontation on the sustainable future of our societies.
“Man is what he inhabits,” paraphrasing Feuerbach’s famous aphorism, “we can explain the reasons for the birth of IN/ARCH, and how they can be particularly relevant and incisive precisely today. If we start from the consideration that it is mainly from observing the remains of settlements that archaeologists are able to reconstruct the characters of vanished civilizations, we realize how there is an inseparable relationship between society and its physical shell. This is because the way in which we organize space, establish rules of coexistence, perform social rituals, spend time in our private lives, represents the level of our civilization and – at the same time – sediments languages through which our ability to design the future is formed. Therefore, the concept of architecture must today cross the boundary of insiders to gain a prominent place in the transformation processes of society. IN/ARCH is concerned with this, and brings together all those who intervene on the territory and change its layout, to affect the quality of architecture. IN/ARCH is not a trade organization, it does not defend interests, but works for the collective interest”