Tradizione e modernità nei complessi manicomiali degli anni Trenta: conoscenza e prospettive di conservazione in Piemonte / Tradition and Modernity in Psychiatric Hospital Complexes of the 1930s: Knowledge and Conservation Perspectives in Piedmont

Abstract

In the 1930s, the construction of psychiatric hospitals in Italy was rooted in a well-established design tradition, yet it introduced formal and technological experimentations that marked an opening towards modernity. The Piedmontese context offers significant examples in the complexes of Racconigi and Vercelli. At Racconigi, the new service pavilions adopted innovative solutions compared to earlier buildings, while at Vercelli Luigi Martini, from the Gardella-Martini practice, designed a layout combining typological continuity with updated construction methods, employing materials consistent with contemporary modern experimentations. Archival research, including the Gardella Archive, has brought to light new documents on the genesis and realisation of these complexes. Today, this heritage – marked by fragility and the absence of reuse strategies – calls for a reflection on intervention criteria for twentieth-century heritage, to be framed within the broader debate on the conservation of psychiatric hospital complexes.