Historic preservation in 20th century Italian new towns

Restoration of architecture in 20th century’s Italian new towns. A distinctive trait of Modern Italian Architecture in earlier 20th century is represented by experimenting with new materials and new building technologies. It is particularly worth mentioning the experimentation with reinforced concrete. This method of construction has provided us with plenty of examples of constructive defects, a number of those have shown defective structures almost immediately, such the case of the coatings of “Casa del Fascio” in Como by Terragni dating 1935. Different cases, such as “Palazzo delle poste” by Libera in Rome dated 1933, have shown signs of structural decay at a later stage, particularly the coping details and water drainage structure. In each case the structural defects provide us with a difficult task to perform because an appropriate refurbishment of details is required in order to preserve the building; however such preservation processes may conflict with the theories and principles of restoration. Along this thread of research we can insert the examples of restoration of two architectures in 20th century’s Italian new towns: the “Gioventù Italiana del Littorio” (Fascist Institution for the physical education and military Youth training) built in 1933 by Giovanni Battista Ceas in Arborea (formerly known as Mussolinia of Sardinia), and the “Dopolavoro” (Recreational club), built in 1937 by Gustavo Pulitzer Finali in Carbonia (“city of the coal”), that stands in the piazza Roma, the main square of the city. In the first case the most laborious constructional element is represented by the structural solution adopted for the huge portals framing the open air swimming pool inside the complex. Each of the two portals is made of two Vierendel Beams, which are 22.6 meters in length, that are laid on the pillars with a trolley system. At 1/6 of the span Ceas inserted small pillars made of staggered bricks, which throughout the years have shown signs of wearing and vertical cracking on all sides, along the whole height. As the pillars are rather slender, (with a section of 30 cm. by 60 cm, and a total height of 7.20 meters), they do not show marked signs of vertical cracking. Among the restoration project of the “GIL” a monitoring programme is also taking place to analyze the building decay and its causes. In the second case the main modifications realized to the original state are due to new additions, inappropriate and incomplete interventions of maintenance. Another modification regards the rule of the building respect to the public space: the passage trough the building, connecting the piazza Roma with the backside gardens, has been closed in the 50ties, excluding themselves by public use. The building is an elementary volume covered with a pitched roof, subdivided in two different areas: one separated in two levels, dedicated to offices and services, the second one, with double height, hosts the hall dedicated to the staff meetings of the mine management. The facade on piazza Roma is characterized by an high porch on which nine high windows are opened. The restoration project realized under the supervision of Architectural Department of University of Cagliari, is based on the will to conserve each original element, to eliminate inadequate additions and to guarantee the building duration, besides the reopening of the passage connecting the Roma square and the gardens.