STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS IN ITALIAN SCHOOL BUILDINGS OF THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE SCHOOL “REALDO COLOMBO” IN CREMONA

Camillo Boito is depicted in the history of the Modernist Movement, primarily as a critic although he designed a small number of buildings and restorations. In fact Boito chose his occasions carefully, and his works were highly successful. Details of the schools - in Pad- ua, the Reggia Carrarese (1877-80) or via Galvani in Milan (1886-1890) - were published in magazines and manuals and were models for hundreds of buildings. They were designed for the large student population generated by the extension of compulsory education, and reflect- ed the new and improved educational standards of the “Coppino” Law (1877). Even the typo- logical-structural conception was replicated. He foresaw three floors, with pavilions for stairs and services providing an interruption or end point with thicker division walls to the long buildings housing the classrooms. These were formed by the perimeter walls and a spine wall, which divided a wide corridor from the classroom, with large windows. The perpendicu- lar walls between classrooms, were also load bearing, and ensured a “box-like” behavior. Imitators often simplified the structural system, while copying the distribution and decoration. A significant example is the Realdo Colombo school in Cremona, where the structure is re- duced to long parallel walls of the façades and corridors. With little but carefully studied re- inforcing and additional transversal frames, seismic safety can be completely assured, leaving virtually intact the bright and dignified façades and interiors. The text illustrates some of the results of research on schools in Northern Italy built between the Nineteenth and Twentieth century and their structural problems, the research was made possible by funding granted in the framework of Art and Culture by the Cariplo Foundation. Research on schools in Milan and Cremona was conducted by Angelo Giuseppe Landi, while Alberto Grimoldi mostly concentrated on the case of Padua.