IL QUARTIERE DI SANT’ELIA A CAGLIARI TRA PROGETTO E COSTRUZIONE

The Sant'Elia district was built in the 70s in a context of strong housing emergency. An extreme attempt to face up to such emergency was to use industrialized construction methods (with on site prefabrication and casting industrialization) that were experimented by taking inspiration from Le Corbusier and taking a structuralist approach. Although the district was born with all the contradictions stemming from a social utopia transposed to architecture, it is basically the result of a collaboration between a group of researchers / designers educated at Enrico Mandolesi Institute in the field of heavy prefabrication systems, based on construction models and technologies experimented in France. The gap between design, structure and construction stage caused a discernible tension when it came to harmonize the original design and the construction phase. Besides, that kind of experimentation has rarely been followed up. However, the Sant'Elia Del Favero district has often been subject to redevelopment programmes never carried out (the last one was signed in 2008 by Rem Koolhaas – OMA). Fourty years later, many questions about the district are not being answered yet.