From the bit to the city. Ibm, Renzo Piano and the search for an architecture for the 'tecnotronic age'

In 1984, the European division of IBM organised Exhibit, a travelling exhibition on information technology that precisely in that period began to deal with everyday life and to transform it. Originally designed to be housed in the spaces of a hotel chain, the exhibition soon changed its tone thanks to the intervention of Gianluigi Trischitta, who had been the head of communications for IBM Europe since 1974. It was therefore decided to build a special pavilion for the exhibition and the task of building it was entrusted to Renzo Piano. With this case study as a reference, this essay investigates the Italian setting and IBM’s communication strategies, questioning the role of the bit – the unit of measurement of ‘information sciences’ and the standard of contemporaneity – in the construction of a new cultural paradigm, as well as new spaces, architectures and cities.