Aosta · Italy

The workers' village

This district did not grow of its own accord: it was designed. When the steelworks required more labour than the valley could supply, the company built the housing and, with it, the school, the church, the sports ground and the shops. It was a manner of proceeding typical of those years: the firm provided not only the wage but the place in which to live, and therefore a considerable part of its workers' existence. The fronts are plain, the streets regular, the shared spaces planned from the outset. Walking through it one understands at once that a single design preceded it. Today whoever wishes lives here, and the plant is merely the employer of some.

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Was this common?

Very, in Italy and across Europe between the wars. Large firms built entire villages beside their plants. Some were generous projects, others an efficient way of keeping hold of employees. Usually they were both at once.

Who came to live here?

Families from the Veneto between the wars and from the south after 1945, alongside people from the valley who had come down from the villages. For many it was the first home they had had with running water. The languages spoken here were not the ones spoken in the villages around.

What is it like now?

An ordinary part of the city, with its shops and its gardens. The difference shows in the plan: the regularity and the shared spaces look nothing like the rest of Aosta, which grew a piece at a time.

Where it is

Quartiere Cogne, 11100 Aosta · 45.73632, 7.30855 · Open in Maps

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