Archeologia industriale e autarchia. La Laveria Lamarmora di Nebida

Abstract Since the second half of the nineteenth century, following the footsteps of the old Phoenician and Roman extraction points, some mining companies from France, Belgium and England redesigned the coastal landscape of the Sulcis - Iglesiente region, in Sardinia. In particular, the companies really transformed the coastline look from Portixeddu to Funtanamare. It had been a hard work of intensive colonization, involving the building of a frame of structures and pathways, a perfect synthesis of local construction know-how, international models, and building solutions imposed by functional needs. One of the most significant outcomes is certainly the factory washing "Lamarmora" in Nebida, whose construction started in 1896 and was completed a year later. It is an evocative terraced structure in brickwork, lying at the foot of the "Grutixedda" schist hill, which on the other side drops into the sea. In the building site, there worked the same men employed in the mining, and in most cases the same material was used that was drawn from the extraction, or, anyway, the Sulcis-Iglesiente region own resources. The pieces of dolomite, obtained from the waste rock, were used to build the walls, while the trachyte from the nearby quarries, when cut into regular blocks was used to construct the walls corner, when cut into small slabs it was used for the floors of the halls. It was an autarchic architecture that employed only a few items imported from the oversea lands: the solid bricks used for the external profile of the arches, the steel beams, the asbestos sheets that once roofed halls and rooms.