The innovation of reinforced concrete in the automotive factories in the early 1900s. Patents, technologies and constructive experimentation

The paper investigates the initial applications of reinforced concrete in both industrial and architectural field during the first two decades of the twentieth-century in Turin, with a focus on its connection to the inception of the automotive sector. The introduction of the main foreign patents into the city, such as the Hennebique System, was facilitated by the activities of Giovanni Porcheddu's construction company. In Italy the diffusion of reinforced concrete was rapidly directed towards the foundation of the new pre-Fordist production sites related to French and American construction models, such as Coignet (Symmonet 1992) and Kahn and Ransome Systems (Mikesell 2019). This paper stems from an ongoing cataloguing activity, conducted under the TAHN (Turin Automotive Heritage Network) Protocol within the Department of Architecture and Design at Politecnico di Torino, that meticulously identified numerous case studies from the automotive sector in the city of Turin, many of which were previously undocumented. The study delves into the analysis of structural and typological solutions in reinforced concrete, correlatng them with the evolution of the industrial system. It draws connections to prior research conducted at both local and sectoral levels. This paper explores exemplary cases, categorized by urban and functional type, technological and structural innovations. An emblematic case is Lingotto (constructed from 1916 onwards), where the remarkable serial nature of the building stands as a noteworthy outcome of the shift from horizontal to vertical factory design.