Analysis of Casa del Portuale of ALR
On the merchandised coast of south Italy, at the east zone of Naples's seaport, a Neapolitan architect, born in 1933, designed Casa del Portuale, meaning House of the Port, a welfare building for social services for harbor workers. Constructed between 1968 and 1980, the building is probably the magnum opus of Aldo Loris Rossi (ALR), an anomalous figure in Italian architectural culture at the time, who despite his -basically - autodidact nature, managed to introduce an unprecedented vision into the architectural scene. Using reinforced concrete as his primary medium to sculpt his intricate, utopian synthesis, he looms over the town's future manifesto, configured within an urban strategy based on the restructuring of the port-city relationship.
Located directly opposite to the city's railway services, separated solely by a main street, Calata Marinella, the urban surroundings consist of an important transportation point for most port workers. Insane access to industrial and personal energy (as shown on the graph in Fig.6, page 9) allowed for ALR to express this new, differentiated typology. "The squalid, degraded coastal scene of Calata Marinella, devoid of significant creative parameters, is animated by a pioneering, spectacular object, subversive, which seems to claim an environmental ransom", commented Bruno Zevi, Italian architect and historian (translated from Italian).
A large part of the building in plan is used as car parking, which proves the economic development of Italy, with $1.5 billion being used, according to the Marshall Plan, to rebuild the nation's post-war economy, also known as the Italian economic miracle during early 1950s, a stepping stone for the country's social and culture development. Today, the industrial work of art is left empty and abandoned, while the offices are swept by the wind. The parking responds to the regime of the car, governing the ground level, and in order to not be outdated until it is constructed it predicts the further increase of private car-ownership.
Figure 1. An axonometric drawing of Casa del Portuale.
Twelve vertical hollow cylinders (highlighted in figure ) make the structural nuclei of Casa del Portuale, from which platforms containing the individual functions protrude, offsetting the verticality of the building, not to save expensive land, but to make an amenity for the people. This defines the ground level as an unpleasant and dangerous place to be. In this way, the first lot of the concrete building aims to become a fragment of the new Neapolitan metropolis, while the second lot, distinct yet integrated to the existing on an air passage, is articulated around structural and plant nuclei which determine the fixed points of its matrix. The intersection of these geometric matrices led to its poor seismic detailing which was also a factor for its abandonment.
The mega-structure implements a vertical interpretation of volumes for the various functions to be placed on separate levels. The overall structure is organized from several autonomous structural nuclei corresponding to the vertical links consisting of technical equipment (MEP services, ducts, pipes etc), around which the differentiated volumes radiate. Very rarely does ALR use filled columns, as they are always ducts containing stairs, elevators or vertical services. At the lower levels are the offices, service areas and equipment; offices occupy the intermediate levels, while the restaurant and its annexes are located at the very upper level. The technique involved the use of peripheral, curvilinear surfaces, released from load-bearing vertical facades, which is what gave most of the freedom of such designs, like never before.
Naples, one of the most heavily bombarded by the BLITZ Italian cities in 1940 and almost during all of ALR's early life, which may have also triggered the rupture of the juxtaposition of his buildings which "establishes the recognition of irrational behavior, of freedom and expression and multidisciplinary nature in net symbiosis with the idea of a city that happens. Nomadic, transient, interchangeable, where chaos regulated itself spontaneously... exorcising any taboos on habitat stability" according to B. Zevi in the History of Modern Architecture, (Einaudi, Torino 1973). "The facade of a house must come down, rise, break down, insinuate and protrude" exhibiting the proof of how the society felt after the civic destruction of cities from the second World War.
Figure 3, conceptual drawing by Aldo Loris Rossi
The reinforced, fair-faced concrete(as seen in Figure 11) spanned in situ, devoid from columns and beams and other limitations of form. This flexibility of the material helped the assemblage of convex/concaves shapes which produced massive interior spaces, that were reasonably smoke-free due to active heating, instead of the latter fire-burning stoves. Improved internal ventilation, using five roof vents which could be easily afforded; access to rooms is gained to all floors via a staircase placed on the left-side of the south-facing elevation, windowless, therefore artificially lit inside day and night, showing how cheap energy was that they could afford to use it non-stop, (at least short-term) and therefore relying on it 100% meant functioning in a black-out would be horrendously difficult. The use of uncoated, raw concrete proves that the architect does not consider energy consumption and low thermal insulation properties as an important issue. This, slowly, also led to this building to being abandoned due to high running costs ending up as a ghost-building.
Figure 5, showing Casa del Portuale NW facade entrance, with the highlighted features being the exteriorly sculpted undercroft of a spiral staircase on the corresponding vertical link, the windowless (on the right-hand side of the figure) element containing the staircase, the convex and concave surfaces of the horizontal platforms containing the separate functions as well as the heavily glazed (left-hand side of the figure) north part of the building
Its architectural style combines organic morphologies, expressionist, futurist and constructivist influences. Statically, Casa del Portuale, haunted by Stalinist architecture and used for social services, is defined by continuous concave-convex surfaces, which echo in Torres Blancas, commissioned by fascist-governed Spain, high-class apartments. Remembering that Italy was healing from Mussolini's fascist state then, the emergence of a strong communist party of 1963, is worth to mention. Both buildings exploit the cheap energy to build impressive and high raw concrete, "differentiating the movement's political necessity", according to E.Bloch, "involving a commitment to social transformation". Cantilevers, displaying the possibilities that can be achieved with reinforced concrete, are visible in Figure, an ostentatious design for an office of port workers as prime users, a masterpiece of architectural innovation. The built results embody the aspirations of the users and the architect's surreal, complex mechanism.
"The box-like vision, to pack, is outdated. We do not care about the skin as much as the bones and organs " ALR has quoted, the bones and organs being the functions and the skin being the building envelope. He interferes in this way, placing the contents almost autonomously. "It is a poetic composition expressed by humanizing the habitat", as mentioned in M.Locci's book on ALR: 'La Concretezza dell'Utopia'. (See the exteriorly sculpted staircase around one of the vertical columns on the north-west facade in Figure 5).
The ideology of discontinuous idiosyncrasy dominates, without wanting to be identified as a specific entity. He does not prioritize being liked and he denies the principle of approval, while he does not require orderliness in his differentiated typology of space, which is conducted in 3 key elements: structure as the landscape, inventory of the contents thought in territorial terms and communicative pluralism with no privileged perspectives.
From the street side, on figure 5, he underpins the perspective of the platforms placed above the ground level with a large extension of glazed surfaces, disregarding energy waste and added heating/cooling requirements. Glazing is made of an exteriorly-striking curtain wall. Function-less, architectural elements dominate as well as newly-introduced circular window openings. At the two top levels the north-facing elevation of the block the biggest amount of glazing is placed completely out of the context of the south facing side, with a large block of reinforced concrete, completely windowless.
Figure 9, a collection of photographs showing the circular openings and vertical links from a street view perspective.
The economic miracle had turned Italy from a mainly rural nation into an industrial power. A combination of a large and cheap supply of labour force and the rationalization and mechanization of agriculture turned emigration into a great factor when millions were emigrating into cities, especially Naples, one of the largest urban districts in the country in the 1960s. These, along with advanced technical knowledge and integration of new machinery in factories, led to spectacular economic growth, until the later oil crisis of 1970.
More than half century prior to Casa del Portuale's starting construction date, due to high costs of energy they ensured to design buildings that would deal with the local weather conditions throughout the seasons. The Port of Liverpool building, located at the waterfront and constructed in 1904, well-before the 1940s blitz, stands expensive and luxurious, in Edwardian baroque, as the former headquarters of the Mersey Docks and Harbor Board, made of a reinforced concrete frame and clad in Portland stone, completely different than the Neapolitan port building, described as Neo-Baroque, by G. Dorfles. When the cheap energy of the 1960s, however, promoted an excitement, it gave architects a wider choice of other, more flexible material, orientation and shape options by ignoring the climatic factors, since they could afford using mechanical processes of heating and cooling. Building on the waterfront changes the scene of material option as it is easy to ship anything. Today we can see again how the technology is again being displayed in the construction of Antwerp's impressive Port House by ZHA, which, receiving a lot of rejecting opinions, shows how people do not find it easy to like emerging styles at any period.
Again, development of coastal regions was a pioneering tool for the regeneration and urban transformation, and, with architecture being the reflection of human society, priorities and motives were visible in the two aforementioned time-periods, with relative energy-expenditures. The absence of concern for energy bills or cold bridging is obvious in Casa del Portuale, which is celebrating the use of improved HVAC mechanical systems. This energy-hungry post-war construction was key to further industrial expansion. However, as later on Italy was drowning in electricity bills, cutting measures were established for many services, too costly to run.
The Casa del Portuale expresses the breach of the code, accentuating the verticality and dramatization, through the insertion of strongly jutting volumes in his design, still there today in a scenic context, mostly degraded. The challenges faced over time in the Casa del Portuale are consequences of the ignorance of longevity in the buildings designed in 1960's boom which led to its abandonment, due to rising liturgical running costs. Industrialisation had come across widespread criticism for transforming 'intimidating' volumes of concrete into imaginative examples of skillfully-crafted architecture. Equally, reinforced concrete structures designed before the 1970s are usually vulnerable due to lack of seismic detailing to provide adequate ductility. Weak reinforcement, lack of joint transverse reinforcement and low concrete strength might have also been some of the deficiencies that led to the abandonment of Casa del Portuale. Ultimately, raw concrete buildings have been perceived to have a dystopian aesthetic, and that shouldn't be shocking, new information, since throughout time, almost every prevailing style has been outdated for a long time until it has been genuinely appreciated and admired.
Bibliography:
< >Educated Hope: Ernst Bloch on Abstract and Concrete Utopia, Ruth Levitas Utopian Studies Vol. 1, No. 2 (1990), pp. 13-26; L. Cosenza, "Renovation de Naples", in Construction et humanisme; J. Huguenot, "Integrer les fonctions de la ville dans une structure verticale" in Construction et humanisme; Raw Concrete: The Beauty of Brutalism by Barnabas Calder 2015 P.C. Santini, "Situazione a Napoli", in Ottagono 1970; L. Nurkhardt, B. Schmidt, "Utopie und Planung", in Document 5, E. Bloch gewidmet 1972; F. Menna, "Aldo Loris Rossi (l'arquitettura come arte programmata)", 1965; R. Banham. Age of Masters, Architectural Press, Tonbridge, 1975; "Works of A. Loris Rossi + D. Mazzoleni"; G. Dorfles, "Barocco Napoletano", in Domus 1981; L. Berni, "Casa del Portuale a Napoli, architetto A.L.R.", in Panorama 1981; F. Irace, "La Casa del Portuale a Napoli", in L'Industria italiana del cemento, 1982; P. Belfiore, "Aldo Loris Rossi", in Aura 1970-1980, Naples 1983; M. Locci, "Aldo Loris Rossi, La Concretezza dell'Utopia",Torino 1997; 'Power to the People' by Malanima, Paolo Kander, Astrid Warde, Princeton University Press, 2014; www.energyhistory.org; 2009 Annual Report on Energy, Source: Based on BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2008; G. Dorfles, 1981; B. Zevi, 1982; P. Belfiore, B. Gravagnuolo, 1994 "Deconstruction" by Andreas Papadakis "The Architecture of Doom", historical documentary, 1989 V. Marghi "Architettura Futurista" Mathews, Jeff "The Architecture of Fascism in Naples" 2012 L. Monda "Napoli durante la II guerra mondiale ovvero: i 100 bombardamenti di Napoli" http://www.isses.it/Convegno050305/Monda.pdf A. Stefanile. I cento bombardamenti di Napoli (Naples: Marotta, 1968) N. Lewis. Naples '44 ( London : Eland, 2002 – 1st ed. Collins 1978) G. Mazzanti. Obiettivo Napoli (Rome: Teos, 2004). (About World War II) Nicholas Crafts, Gianni Toniolo (1996). Economic growth in Europe since 1945. Cambridge University Press. p. 441 David Forgacs, Stephen Gundle (2007). Mass culture and Italian society from fascism to the Cold War. Michael J. Hogan (1987). The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947-1952. Nicholas Crafts, Gianni Toniolo (1996). Economic growth in Europe since 1945. Cambridge University Press. p. 428 Ennio Di Nolfo (1992). Power in Europe? II: Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, and the Origins of the EEC 1952-57 Nardozzi, Giangiacomo. "The Italian" Economic Miracle"." Rivista di storia economica (2003) pp: 139-180 Rota, Mauro. "Credit and growth: reconsidering Italian industrial policy during the Golden Age." European Review of Economic History (2013) pp: 431-451 Tolliday, Steven W. "Introduction: enterprise and state in the Italian'economic miracle'." Enterprise and Society (2000) pp: 241-248 https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/The-economic-miracle I. Greco 'Ports and Urban Transformation: A Comparative Analysis on Projet Basis: The Case of Taranto and Naples', DEMM-Department of Low, Economic, Management and Quantitative Methods, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Sannio, Via delle Puglie, Benevento, Italy. Bruno Zevi, Verso un'architettura organica, Giulio Einaudi editore, Torino 1945 (English translation). Hertanto E."Seismic Assessment of Pre-1970s Reinforced Concrete Structure"Thesis of Civil Engineering for Masters of Engineering, University of Canterbury, 2005 www.independent.co.uk/voices/architecture-john-hayes-brutalism-barbican-euston-arch-a7398136.html B.Zevi, History of Modern Architecture, Einaudi, Torino 1973 J. Dargay, D. Gately and M. Sommer: Vehicle Ownership and Income Growth, Worldwide: 1960-2030, January 2007 Image Referencing
-Photo credits to Diego de Rienzo
-http://www.artwort.com/2014/11/06/architettura/regno-tangibile-dellillusione-casa-portuale-aldo-loris-rossi/
Figure 1 - Axonometric Drawing: M. Locci, "Aldo Loris Rossi, La Concretezza dell'Utopia",Torino 1997, page 39; Figure 2 - My own illustrations on AutoCAD tracing images from (http://db.ermes-multimedia.it/an1945/index_scheda_iframe.asp?id=6); Figure 3 - Conceptual Drawings: M. Locci, "Aldo Loris Rossi, La Concretezza dell'Utopia",Torino 1997 page 44, Originally from Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris; Figure 4 - Combined ilustrations from (http://db.ermes-multimedia.it/an1945/index_scheda_iframe.asp?id=6) ; Figure 5 - Illustrations created by myself on AutoCAD to improve the resolution of details. Figure 6 - http://fondazionemaxxi.it/sezioni_web/biennale/indagine/regionali/napoli.htm Figure 7 - Conceptual Drawings: M. Locci, "Aldo Loris Rossi, La Concretezza dell'Utopia",Torino 1997 page 41, Originally from Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris; Figure 8 - Graph of Energy Consumption in Italy, Naples - Handbook of Energy: Diagrams, Charts, and Tables By Cutler J. Cleveland, Christopher G. Morris publication date 25 July 2013page 624.
See Original Drawings here:
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