Experimental building techniques in the 1930’s: the “Pater” system in the Ex-Circolo Skanderbeg of Tirana

The subject of this study concerns the constructive experimentation developed in Italy and in its areas of influence around the '30s, in a period of autarchic economy. We investigate some techniques, many of which still poorly understood, applied in buildings for housing, industry and the provisional architecture, which included the use of wood as the main construction material, often in collaboration with the concrete. The case of study is the ex-Circolo Italo-Albanese Skanderbeg (now Theatre Kombetar), a building constructed in the period of the Italian protectorate in Tirana. The building was commissioned in 1938 at the company Pater Costruzioni Edili Speciali of Milano. For its economic and fast realization was applied an experimental construction system, which used different materials: concrete, wood and an innovative material, product in prefabricated slabs, called Populit. This was a lightweight material consisting of cement and scraps of wood, produced by SAFFA. The vertical structure consists of a load-bearing skeleton in weakly reinforced concrete. A double plugging inside and outside made in Populit panels collaborated with the structure, as it was used as formwork. This structural system is similar to the platform frame system for the use of prefabricated elements of wood, but the use of enclosing structure collaborating seems to anticipate the latest 'panels' systems. In addition to the technical aspects of the building’s realization, analyzed through some critical re-designs, this study intends to address the issue of the formal and spatial implications arising from the use of new building techniques. This study, developed in a Laboratory of Thesis in the Faculty of Architecture of Bari, wants to contribute to the knowledge of this yet existing building, which we believe be enhanced and restored, for its important role in the urban context, and its historical and documentary value.