Parish Church, Canton Vesco

Canton Vesco, Ivrea – 1958

Architecture: Mario Oliveri and Marcello Nizzoli
Structures: Aldo Favini
Client: OLIVETTI S.p.A., Ivrea

Structural scheme
Structure simply resting on lateral pendulum.

«…The roof has been made with a prestressed corrugated structure in which the standard element is composed of a hollow crosspiece with thin walls. This crosspieces rest on vertical piers with a height of 8 meters, with a V form at the base with a thickness of 15 cm, that flatten to the point of becoming a rectilinear wall at the top, with a thickness of 20 cm. The body of the church, a rectangle measuring 21.30 x 28.90 meters, is covered by seventeen crosswise elements placed at constant intervals. The section of the crosspiece is variable and symmetrical with respect to the midpoint section; at the support point it has a total height of 1.40 m and a hollow upside-down V shape; the midpoint section, on the other hand, is of the caisson type, a triangular form with the tip pointing downward and a total height of 158 cm. The passage from the section at the support points to the midpoint section is gradual, through intermediate sections that take on a M shape closed at the top by a slab with a thickness varying from 15 to 8 cm. The thickness of the oblique walls is constant (8 cm). The prestressing reinforcement is composed of four cables (….) that subdivide into twelve cables of 6 lines each with diameter of 5 mm near the supports. Eight cables of 6 lines with diameter of 5 mm on the lateral oblique walls complete the prestressed reinforcement.»

By F.I.P. 1962.

«…Knowing the rough measurements of the church (width of the nave, height of the roof) I went to work after a few months. Returning from Ivrea, accompanied by my wife, I stopped at the house in Varallo Pombia, where she had a serious accident that deeply disturbed me. I told all this to Arch. Nizzoli who graciously reassured me that he would even wait months, until I had found the necessary tranquility for the work. In December 1956 I submitted a preliminary structural study (for the thin vault roof in prestressed reinforced concrete to be made with the Favini system) which was immediately accept both by Arch. Nizzoli and by the studio of Olivetti. That study, shown in drawing no. 1, formed the structural basis for the whole work, with the exception of the steeple and the portal of the church designed by the Nizzoli-Oliveri studio, for which my work was limited to structural calculations.»

note AF 2004.

Publications
• AF, Chiesa del Sacro Cuore ad Ivrea, Torino, in “Atti del IV Congresso Internazionale del precompresso (F.I.P.). Realizzazioni italiane in cemento armato precompresso”, Roma-Napoli 1962.