ITALY-FENDI Fashion firm Fendi gives new lease of life to fascist-era "Square Colosseum"

Record ID: 134782

  • Title: ITALY-FENDI Fashion firm Fendi gives new lease of life to fascist-era "Square Colosseum"
  • Date: 22nd October 2015
  • Summary: ROME, ITALY (FILE - JANUARY 28, 2013) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** DESIGNER AND FENDI CREATIVE DIRECTOR KARL LAGERFELD ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE ROME, ITALY (FILE - JUNE 11, 2012) (REUTERS) TREVI FOUNTAIN WORKERS ON CRANE WORKERS ON CRANE CHECKING STATE OF TREVI FOUNTAIN TREVI FOUNTAIN
  • Embargoed: 6th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAE36NYXY3G1TKHKUGYYKDGA053
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    A boxy monument to Italy's Fascist era is filling with workers for the first time in its 70-year history as fashion brand Fendi opens its new headquarters at the restored "Square Colosseum".
    The travertine structure, formally known as the "Great House of Italian Civilisation" or the "Great House of the Civilisation of Work", was built by dictator Benito Mussolini for a planned world's fair in 1942 that was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War Two.
    Abandoned and little used since then, the rationalist imitation of the ancient Colosseum amphitheatre now houses 500 Fendi employees and a free art exhibition on the ground floor.
    "Officially, these are our new headquarters where all the Fendi teams, some 500 people, will be reunited under one roof. At the same time I believe this is an extraordinary project for Rome because with Fendi here, as a leaseholder, we will be able to hold exhibitions, around three or four per year, which will give the chance to tourists, Romans, schools and universities to visit the space which will be open to the public free of charge. In a symbolic way we are opening the doors of a building that for 72 years has been closed for the world and hiding its beauty," Fendi chief Pietro Beccari said at a preview event on Thursday (October 22).
    In a hushed, white-walled workshop on the lowest of seven storeys that loom over the so-called EUR business district south of Rome that was Mussolini's great project, Fendi's employees measure and trim pieces of fur.
    The company has agreed a 15-year lease, after speculation it could buy the building outright from the cash-strapped state-controlled owner of the district.
    Beccari said he thought the Italian government would be happy to have as its tenant the company that has already paid to restore the Trevi Fountain and the Four Fountains monument in central Rome.
    Rome-based travel journalist, Enrica Firpo, said the building was full of stories and thus served as an ideal location for exhibitions.
    "I think it's an incredible initiative. Finally we can come into this beautiful palazzo that has a lot of history from pre-war and post-war and see not just the details that went into making this palazzo but the show that's here gives us an even better idea of what the idea was for EUR and then what happened and also the second projection during the Olympics. One of the things I find fascinating is to see all the sketches of all the possibilities, some that happened, some that didn't and then we see actualities which is beautiful and I hope they'll do more shows here," she said.
    Fendi has not said how much it cost to convert the building into office space, or the price of leasing it, but Italian press have reported the annual rent is around 3 million euros ($3.36 million).
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