Gusci sottili in cemento armato: invenzioni e innovazioni tecnologiche per gli edifici industriali (1920-70)

Reinforced concrete thin shells and, specifically, self-supporting vaults find their most significant application in the industrial buildings of the 1900s. In Italy, where reinforced concrete can be considered throughout the 20th Century the predominant construction technique, the design and construction evolution of self-supporting vaults for industrial buildings trace a significant story in the broad history of construction and industry. Starting from a gradual assimilation of foreign systems and patents elaborated around the 1920s, the design and methods of execution of the self-supporting vaults adapted to national design and technological specificities. Through an intertwining of heterogeneous sources, including literature and archival documents, the paper assesses and analyzes the application of self-supporting vaults during the phases of autarkic experimentation in the 1930s, the development of new solutions during the 1940s, the use and role of prestressed concrete in the 1950s, and the influence of the industrialized building processes in the 1960s.