The First Experimentations on the Hollow Tile Floors in Western Sicily

The paper analyzes the evolution of the constructive techniques used in the period between the First and the Second World War in which traditional and innovative elements coexisted. Symbolic example of such structures has been found in the rural suburb buildings constructed in Sicily in the first ‘40es. We refer to those buildings remembering the forms of the local rural architecture realized with vertical structures, predominantly undressed stone load-bearing masonry, and with inclined and horizontal reinforced concrete structures. This is the period when the first experimentation of reinforced concrete in the current housebuilding happened. The most important innovations regard the hollow tile floors, some of these patented typologies have been used in that period by building contractors in Italy.

The buildings analyzed were put together by some of the greatest building contractors in the nation, among which we remember the Ferrobeton, created as the Italian branch of the Wayss & Freytag German company.