Utensil-structures.The language of installations as an Italian tectonic trajectory (1965-1975)

The technological issue of the relationship between mechanical services and structural research in the architecture of 20th century became certainly one of the most important lines for development and innovation of Modern architectural style. With respect to this topic, the paper analyses, as a key of interpretation, the role of installations to determine the relationship between envelope and structural layout in the construcitve logic of the framework. In this sense the paper highlights on the type of single-storey factories built in Italy between 1950 and 1975, analysing some built works by Marco Zanuso and Aldo Favini through the archival records. These works show how this type of building gain to paradigmatic innovations, transforming the tectonic joint into an integrated device, whose form was the result of the definition of the mechanical components as technical writing.