Preservation and rehabilitation strategies for the shell and spatial structures by Nervi and Morandi of the Turin Exhibition Center

The Turin Exhibition Center houses some iconic concrete shell and spatial structural architectures by Pier Luigi Nervi and Riccardo Morandi. They consist in three grand pavilions built for hosting major exhibitions and events in the second half of the past century. The magnificent main Hall B and adjacent smaller Hall C were designed and constructed by Nervi in 1947-1950. The underground pavilion designed by Morandi in 1958 is one of his most artistic buildings. Following an international competition, the authors, in cooperation with other partners and the Politecnico di Torino, were entrusted with the task of a Feasibility Study for the reuse, partly as a campus for the Politecnico and partly as the new Civic Library, of the entire complex encompassing these celebrated works of structural art. The paper presents global preservation and rehabilitation strategies, with attention to specific aspects of compatibility: the functional and architectural criteria of the reuse project; structural conservation requirements - which include the need for a seismic assessment in compliance with recent Italian standards, and entail the challenge of guaranteeing new extended service life to concrete structures built many decades ago -; architectural heritage preservation criteria.