Global design and prefabrication in the Barilla manufacturing complex in Pedrignano by Giuseppe Valtolina and Carlo Rusconi Clerici (1968-70)

This study concerns the analysis of the Barilla factory, still not well known in Italian construction history studies. The complex was designed by Giuseppe Valtolina and Carlo Rusconi Clerici, Milanese engineers who were experts in building industrialization and architecture for industry and was built in Pedrignano (Parma). The main buildings of the complex were realised with reinforced and prestressed concrete components prefabricated on site (pillars, beams, panels for the external walls, roof slab), while a few parts were built with elements cast on site. The structural system consisted of three groups of elements: 190 pillars, 160 main beams (span 16 m) and 590 secondary beams (span 20 m). Valtolina and Rusconi Clerici applied the concept of global design, aimed at the integration of technical, functional, economic and production aspects in a design synthesis that controlled resources and execution times. The genesis of the external walls is indicative of this approach and of the possible integration between architecture and technology, without one prevailing over the other. The engineers excluded the use of common prefabricated components, developing products designed ad hoc in which technique, function and aesthetics of the components come together in a product representative of the architectural and technological experimentation conducted in Italy.