Date: 28th April 2017

Time: 03:00 pm

Venue: IDS, Building 8, GTU, 75 Kostava Street, Tbilisi

Event: The BBPR’s Colonia Elioterapica of Legnano: a case study for a possible enhancement of Modern Heritage and its environment

Format: Case Study

Speakers: Prof. Nora Lombardini and Assist. Elena Fioretto, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Poster © Nino Akhobadze

28 April 2017 was an event-intensive day for the IDS: we actually had another presentation following the Lecture-Workshop from Dr. Özgür Cengiz, also with the Erasmus+ mobility project but this time coordinated by Politecnico di Milano – the famous POLIMI, Alma Mater of some of the best names in the Italian design of the XXth Century. Prof. Nora Lombardini assisted by Elena Fioretto, PhD, showed their research on the object that is still considered one of the most representative examples of Italian rationalist architecture. The Elioterapic Colony built between 1937 and 1938 by Milanese studio BBPR (Gian Luigi Banfi, Lodovico Barbiano di Belgioioso, Enrico Peressutti, Ernesto N. Rogers) with the purpose to create an urban alternative to maritime colonies to cure rachitic children and counteract the spread of infantile respiratory diseases. Inspired by the Fascist government, after the WWII the building lost its function and slowly deteriorated into an empty container next to Legnano. The POLIMI research found it in an advanced state of degradation and worked on a project of its rehabilitation. The project was the subject of the case study presented at IDS. The lecture and presentation were followed by a live discussion between the visiting scholars and the students and staff of the IDS who showed an active interest in the issues of urban revalorization.