The Pirelli Foundation

Set up in 2008 on the initiative of the company and of the Pirelli family, the Pirelli Foundation preserves documentation on the history of the company, dating back to its foundation in 1872.

The Foundation carries out numerous activities to promote the company’s legacy, editing publications and organising exhibitions and conferences, as well as putting on guided tours that involve thousands of people each year, also in partnership with other cultural institutions. Each year, the Foundation carries out research activities to assist both company departments and Italian and international scholars, ranging from economic and industrial history to architecture, the history of labour and industrial relations, through to graphics and design. The Foundation also works in the field of education, with courses for schools of all types and levels, as well as universities, with the main aim of introducing also the youngest members of society to the world of production and work, teaching them the fundamental values of the Group’s corporate culture.

A heritage to explore

4 km of documents, including photographs, sketches and advertising materials, as well as documentation on the “History of Pirelli Industries”, illustrating the history of a company that has always made known the story of its own corporate culture.

Find out more on the archive site

The activities of the Foundation also include the conservation and protection of a rich heritage that has been safeguarded by the Sovraintendenza dei Beni Culturali since 1972.

In the heart of the Milano Bicocca district

The Pirelli Foundation is located in the Pirelli Headquarters in the heart of the Bicocca district, which is also home to the Villa degli Arcimboldi, the historic fifteenth-century residence that is now the Group’s official reception venue and that gives its name to the district. Pirelli has been a major feature of the area since 1907, in the end covering an area of about 700,000 square metres.

The Pirelli Foundation preserves the memory and history of this district in documents, photographs, and testimonies of its transformation, including that of the Bicocca Project, which redesigned the area as a “new suburban centre”, thus pioneering the rise of a new concept of modern urban planning.