Housing models and building industrialization during the economic boom

The paper aims to reinterpret some decades of the 20th century history through the study of the a...pplication of industrialization patents and systems in reinforced concrete construction. The analysis deals with construction history, but also with economic and social history. Looking for the relation between constructive systems and building types, it is possible to trace the common thread of the housing struggle, the dreams and the disenchantment of its protagonists, the role of cooperatives and of construction companies, government intervention, the legislative uncertainty and the mechanisms of land rent, in the context of an economic sector - the building one - in constant state of crisis and of backwardness. Dealing with patents and industrialized building systems also means, indirectly, to deal with dwelling mutations, home interiors and quality of life. As privileged observatory, the study considers some districts of Turin suburbs during the period of the great immigration.