Ibridazioni tecnologiche. Le architetture in acciaio e calcestruzzo armato nel secondo Novecento italiano

This thesis addresses the structural combination of steel and reinforced concrete technologies, with the aim of reconstructing the trajectories of a construction practice that has so far received little attention. The hybrid, understood as a dynamic condition shaped by a specific temporal and geographical context, is adopted as an interpretive framework for re-examining this relationship, starting from the classifications of mixed and composite steel-concrete construction commonly referenced in the literature. The first part reconstructs a theoretical and historical genealogy of the combination between steel and reinforced concrete, clarifying the relationships between mixed construction and composite construction and exploring the meaning of the hybrid in the light of modern building culture and the multidisciplinary reflections that have contributed to defining the term. The second part focuses on post-war Italy in the second half of the twentieth century through a sample of case studies, interpreted within a critical framework specifically developed in this research, which proposes four genotypes – superimposition, suspension, inclusion and interposition – as distinct logics of interaction between steel and reinforced concrete. These categories make it possible to identify forms of manifestation (phenotypes) and phenomena of “sterility” or “hybrid vigour”, showing how such combinations can give rise both to unique episodes and to new construction practices, and how hybrid architectures in post-war Italy are not only moments of experimentation but real laboratories in which structural research, formal expression and material culture are interwoven. The hybrid proves to be a transversal concept, capable of cutting across time and space and of being reshaped as paradigms change. In the contemporary scenario, hybrid architectures take on different connotations compared to those of previous centuries. Globalisation has fostered the circulation of increasingly high-performance materials and technologies; at the same time, the cooperation between heterogeneous elements has become an indispensable resource for addressing growing environmental challenges. From this perspective, the hybrid becomes a cognitive device that consistently offers a renewed reading of constructions, opening the way to a new building ecumene in which materials, cultures and bodies of knowledge mutually inform one another.