“Edifici insegnanti”: studio, valutazione e controllo dei dissesti statici di alcuni edifici del Politecnico di Milano

Between 1955 and 1963, the Politecnico di Milano built some new buildings on the ground overlooking the northern side of the university citadel, beyond Via Bonardi: the new Faculty of Architecture, the building of its Institutes (the "Torre”, i.e. Tower), the so called "Trifoglio” (Clover) and “Nave” (Ship), the new Institute of Geophysics, most of which were assigned to the Faculty of Engineering. Over the years, they have all been subject to interventions that have mainly concerned the finishes, and are now about to become part of the campus redefined according to a project by architect Renzo Piano and to be adapted to more advanced standards of use. However, the structural criticalities affecting the Torre, the Trifoglio and part of the Nave (which have long been the focus of attention of the University's technical offices and the subject of recent teaching experiences by students of the School of Architecture), are still unresolved. The results of these experiences are presented here, underlining the importance of extending the link between students and places of study, in order to increase cognitive attention to the university buildings lived daily. The contribution of these experiences to the definition of the characteristics of the phenomenon of degradation and to the recognition of its causes will also be underlined: the final objective is to present the most accredited hypotheses of cause to date, which can be traced back to the specific construction solutions adopted at the time and to some peculiarities of the ground on which the buildings were built. More generally, some considerations are also made with respect to the problems posed by the need to adapt these buildings in relation to the next planned interventions.