L’architettura dell’Industria elettrica in Sardegna dal 1911 al 1961

At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Sardinian industrial production was still strictly related to steam machines and only a few enlightened industries exploited electric power. The development of electrical industry in Sardinia has been an essential moment on a political, social and economic level; the design of artificial lakes has deeply changed the morphology and the hydrology of the Isle, and the modern electrical plants built along the coasts enlarged the industrial heritage which marks the Sardinian landscape. The studied time frame goes from 1911 and 1961, fifty years during which the Società Elettrica Sarda (S.E.S.) has been in charge of the design and construction of the hydroelectrical and thermic plants and power lines. The research focuses on the architectures related to Sardinian electrization: the S.E.S., along with its scientific committee led by Angelo Omodeo e Giulio Dolcetta, has built high quality architectures and high level factories. The dykes and the plants not only reached high technical performances, but are also the result of a fertile architectural research that has no equals in the hystory of Sardinia. Few of the plants have been demolished and some of them now are only ruins that still demand for a solution; two of the hydroelectrical plants are still productive and still provide for electrical power. The aim of the research is to create an archive that puts together all documents that are now stored in various archives in the whole country and also to deeply investigate the buildings to discover the constructive and design ideas; all architectures are studied trough drawing, that helps the understanding process throughrout all components of the architecture, its materials and its building techniques. The research will become an organic record that contains an accurate study of the buildings designed by S.E.S. during the most active years of electrical revolution in Sardinia; it also wants to become a solid means for a future design action.