Spazi e strutture per l’industria: evoluzioni della volta sottile autoportante in Italia

In the twentieth century, the development of industrial buildings showed a strong relationship between advanced structural solutions and the conception of the peculiar spaces of production. In this design framework, reinforced concrete thin shells and, specifically, self-supporting vaults find a significant application. In Italy, starting from the gradual ‘assimilation’ of foreign systems and patents, elaborated in the 1920s, the self-supporting vaults adapted to national design and technological specificities. In the technological predominance of reinforced concrete construction, featuring the national building sector, the application of self-supporting vaults spread in the phases of autarkic experimentation, in the 1930s and 1940s, was supported by prestressed reinforced concrete, in the 1950s, and, thus, influenced by the industrialized building processes, in the 1960s. Through the intertwining of heterogeneous sources, including literature of the time and archival documents, this paper highlights how, in Italy, the self-supporting vaults – hybridizing the standards of design and execution proposed by foreign patents and manuals – has given rise to unique execution methods, structural forms, and customized spatiality of the industrial buildings. According to the actual needs of knowledge, preservation, and valorization of the national industrial building heritage, the study produces base data for both the cultural exploitation and the maintenance processes.