Lavazza, one of Italy’s largest and best-known coffee manufacturers, celebrates its history and Italy's coffee culture at a new museum inaugurated this summer at the company’s headquarters in Turin.
The itinerary goes through five galleries. Casa Lavazza is devoted to the history of the company, which was founded in 1895 by Luigi Lavazza. Visitors can see the promissory note signed by Luigi, so he could open a small grocery store in the center of Turin – the beginnings of the Lavazza enterprise. Fabbrica is the section where visitors can learn about how coffee is made, illustrating the various phases of production. Piazza recreates a typical Italian square from the 1960s to celebrate the ritual of coffee. It features the historic Autobar, a van that was used to sell coffee on the streets and in the piazzas, and the Iss-presso, the first espresso machine designed for space travel. Atelier is a photo studio that retraces the artistic and creative collaborations of the Lavazza brand through images and installations. Universo is a dreamlike space, where visitors can immerse themselves in a 360° multimedia projection and taste a coffee recipe prepared by the Training Center Lavazza.
The Lavazza Cup, a classic espresso cup handed to visitors upon entering the museum will guide you through the museum. It’s equipped with a Rfid (Radio Frequency Identification) sensor, which interacts with the exhibit’s information system. Thus, by positioning the Lavazza Cup on the various interactive displays, it is possible to activate the immersive projections or take a souvenir photo to send to your e-mail address at the end of the visit.
The museum was designed by Ralph Appelbaum’s studio, with the contribution of Francesca, Antonella and Manuela Lavazza. Texts accompanying the installations were prepared by students of the Scuola Holden, a creative writing school, under the supervision of Italian writer Alessandro Baricco.
Next to the museum is the Archivio Storico Lavazza, which contains 8,500 documents, stories and images recounting 120 years of the company’s history.
The Lavazza Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm. Admission fee is €10 and includes a coffee tasting. https://museo.lavazza.com/en.html
