Record of the webinar
Preserving Pier Luigi Nervi’s Pavilions at Torino Esposizioni:
A Conservation Plan from Diagnosis to Valorization,
by Erica Lenticchia, Amedeo Manuello Bertetto and Cristiana Chiorino, 
held on July 03, 2026

WEBINAR SHORT ABSTRACT

This presentation examines the adaptive reuse of Pier Luigi Nervi’s structural masterpiece, Torino Esposizioni (1948–54), into Turin's New Civic Library – a major urban regeneration project backed by PNRR funds.
Central to this transformation is the Getty Foundation’s Keeping It Modern Conservation Management Plan (CMP). Rather than operating as a rigid bureaucratic constraint, the CMP serves as a dynamic design tool for "integrated conservation". It bridges the gap between contemporary performance requirements and historic preservation by focusing on two key areas:

• Proactive Conservation: Addressing the inherent "fragility of modernism" (such as experimental ferrocement) through continuous, planned maintenance rather than sporadic, extraordinary restoration.
• Technical Integration: Directing survey and diagnostic data into the final execution plan to balance modern comfort needs (thermal, acoustic, and mechanical) with the building's structural "invariants" – the irreplaceable elements of Nervi's original craftsmanship.

This intervention establishes a sustainable methodological model where deep architectural knowledge does not limit transformation, but actively drives it – successfully returning a Modernist icon to the public while safeguarding its structural truth and identity.

SHORT BIO OF THE PRESENTERS

Erica Lenticchia is a Assistant Professor (RTDa) in Structural Engineering at Politecnico di Torino. She obtained her PhD in Architectural and Landscape Heritage (awarded within the structural engineering discipline) from Politecnico di Torino, defending a thesis on the structural health monitoring of complex architectural heritage buildings (2017). In 2017, she was a visiting researcher at Columbia University, New York, in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.
She is currently a member of the Interdepartmental Centre "Responsible Risk Resilience" (R3C) at Politecnico di Torino. She actively collaborates with the Italian University Network of Laboratories for Earthquake Engineering (ReLUIS) and the FABRE Consortium for the assessment and monitoring of existing bridges, viaducts, and tunnels. Furthermore, she is a member of Working Group 17 (WG 17) on Historical Shell and Spatial Structures of the IASS (International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures), of IABSE International, and of the Construction History Group (CHG) at Politecnico di Torino.
She is part of the research group that was awarded a Keeping It Modern Grant by the Getty Foundation (Los Angeles) in 2019 for the structural analysis and conservation of the pavilions designed by Pier Luigi Nervi at Torino Esposizioni. Within this project, she coordinated the research unit dedicated to documentation and the drafting of conservation guidelines, and she is a member of the unit responsible for structural health monitoring and seismic assessment of the building.
In 2023, she received the international fib Italy Young Member Group Award for Best Research Advances in Concrete and Concrete Structures.
She is the author or co-author of more than 80 publications on the structural and seismic analysis of historical constructions. Her research focuses particularly on structural health monitoring through both on-site and remote sensing techniques, dynamic identification, and the assessment and diagnosis of ancient and modern historical buildings, as well as the study of degradation in historical cementitious materials. Aligned with the challenges of the ecological transition, her research also explores the development and durability of innovative and sustainable cementitious materials, specifically through the analysis of low-environmental-impact materials (geopolymer concretes) and the definition of computational models for structural elements made with these technologies.

Amedeo Manuello Bertetto is Associate Professor at Politecnico di Torino (Department of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering), where he teaches Design and Optimization of Shells and Spatial Structures, Static end Dynamic Instability and Structural Mechanics. He is Co-Chairman of the IASS-IWSS2026 Symposium that will be held in Turin in Italy in September 2026. He is President and co-founder of the Italian Association for the Studies on Shell and Spatial Structures (4S). He is Member of the IASS since 2017, he serves in WG5 and in the IASS Study Group on AI-Informed Structural Engineering & Design. He is/was member of the Seismological Society of America (SSA), the American Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM), the Italian Society for Structural and Continuum Mechanics (SISCo), the World Road Association (PIARC) Cross-Cutting Committee, Bridge Committee, the SISCON Interdepartmental Center and the MUltiscale Modelling and of the SImulation of Complex Materials Association (MUSIC APS). Since 2019 he has been appointed international expert by the Association des Scientifiques au Service de la Restauration de Notre-Dame de Paris under the patronage of the CNRS. He is currently Scientific Director of the Monfron Project and is the Director of the Scientific Committee of ArtIStE – Artificial Intelligence in Structural Engineering at PoliTo. He has authored or co-authored more than 160 publications in international journals and conference proceedings (GS H index:30).

Cristiana Chiorino PhD, is an architect, historian specializing in 20th-century heritage. As a board member of Docomomo Italia and consultant for the Pier Luigi Nervi Foundation, she is a leading expert in preserving Nervi’s legacy, having co-curated his major global touring exhibition.

DATE

The webinar took place on July 03, 2026, at 15:00 (CET), on the Zoom platform.

Below is a transcription of the chat during the webinar