Pier Luigi Nervi's Manifattura Tabacchi in Bologna: a Research on the Use of Concrete in Italian Industrial Architecture of 20th Century

A huge industrial complex marks the northern edge of Bologna: it is the Manifattura Tabacchi (Tobacco factory), designed and built between 1949 and 1963 by Pier Luigi Nervi (1891-1979), indeed one of the leading actors in engineering and architecture of the 20th Century. From the very beginning, Nervi's research has been marked by experiments on the architectural possibilities of concrete. During his long career, Nervi designed a great number of buildings for the industrial production, developing an original way to combine functional and structural needs into aesthetically surprising forms. The Manifattura Tabacchi is a wonderful example of this architectural type: almost a city within the city, it offers several different buildings each of whom show different ways of using concrete. Abandoned since 2008, it has been rediscovered thanks to an international competition for its transformation into a technology center. This contest highlights the need of an analysis of the historical and architectural characters, by examinating the original documents and studying the structure of the buildings. The results will become an essential basis in order to define the guidelines of a reuse process that can both respect and protect the architectural and structural quality of the Manifattura.