Industrial archeology

Carbonia, Miniera di Serbariu. Fotografia di Pietro Paolo Sanna, 2009, da Sardegna DL

The industrial plants of the early twentieth century are characterized by a simple architecture, underlined by sculptural apparatuses that indicate the productive functions, according to the model found in paleoindustrial buildings such as most of the slaughterhouses throughout the island, adorned with bucranes or pouring oxen.

Emblematic is the Semoleria Italiana complex in Cagliari, where the stately entrance portal on Viale della Plaja gives rise to ears of wheat from the side volutes.

Furthermore, with the use of reinforced concrete, a dilemma arises: to represent industrial structures brutally or to “disguise” them with a courtly garment. Especially distilleries or glassworks that best reflect the type of tower, cylindrical or quadrangular, decorated with blackbirds or architectural elements - moldings, frames, blind arches - are able to reproduce medieval buildings. The Vinalcool plant in Pirri, which later became a glassworks, the Maxia furnaces in Quartu Sant'Elena, the furnace of the San Gavino Monreale foundry, are the most important examples of this type, which have their prototype in the “restoration” carried out in the Salvaterra Castle in Iglesias in the early twentieth century to adapt it to glassware.

The discourse on the architecture of the work would not be complete if we did not mention the complex of the Bosa Tannery that overlook the left bank of the Temo river in an extremely suggestive way, facing the regular curtain of houses on the opposite bank: a group of terraced buildings, which repeat a simple gable façade, underlined by the pitched roofs of the roof.

In the same way, iron, exploiting the new technological resources of the second nineteenth century, is used both for shelters in railway stations, and for civic markets or for collective services. The Villacidro washbasin, dating back to 1893, is worth mentioning, but it is also worth mentioning the Old Market of Cagliari, the work of the engineer Enrico Melis. Beyond Serrenti's massive gray stone structure, the structure had an iron, glass and cast iron roof, demolished with the rest of the building in 1957.

After World War II, the Montevecchio mine gained new momentum, so much so that in 1953 the “Rolandi Village” was built, in sober and functional forms, and above all the Funtanazza marine colony, inaugurated in 1956, which can be considered the last philanthropic intervention of a mining company, placing itself halfway between the legacy of the regime's populist intentions and the fruit of trade union achievements. The building is a large building located in an area that was then completely untouched and meets the criteria of practicality and comfort, also taken care of in the interior furnishings and equipment.

Added to this is a radical change in the island's territory, marked not only by the traces of wells in archaeological and historical ages, by settlements and above all by the complementary aspects related to the mining industry. Think of logging for the use of wood, of the harnessing of water also used as a driving force, of channeling works, of railroads built specifically for mining centers, of the construction of volumetrically grandiose and fascinating systems.

Update

24/12/2024 - 11:31