The preservation of new architecture: the workers' club and nursery school of Fabbriche Riunite Industria Gomma in Torino

The preservation of «New Architecture», now recognised as «valuable evidence of civilisation» and the expression of a specific historic-cultural period, which therefore should be viewed as a civilisation and life-long education factor, calls for the development of appropriate intervention methods. The protection of this cultural heritage requires first of all a solid knowledge of the asset concerned, which must be identified, recognised as a valuable element, catalogued, safeguarded, preserved in its material state, since only the preservation of the latter makes it possible to hand down to the future generations what constitutes the hic et nunc of the structure, from its volumetric, spatial distribution and formal features to the characteristics arising from the construction techniques and the materials used The architectural heritage of the Modern Movement is extremely vast and diversified. In Italy, it is well ex-emplified by numerous buildings erected according to the social and propaganda policy of the fascist re-gime, such as the Case del Fascio, children’s seaside and mountain holiday buildings, tbc dispensaries, Homes of the mother and child, workers’ clubs, and all the «facilities intended for the custody, care and primary education of the children of women working at manufacturing plants». The workers’ club and nursery school of Fabbriche Riunite Industria Gomma in Turin (Italy) are interesting examples of this architectural style. Designed by Armando Melis in 1937, they are characterised by a «smooth flowing layout» and a «coherent distribution of volumes » . In the 1980s, the buildings were ac-quired by the municipal government with a view to converting them into a nursery school and a kindergar-ten, but while they ensured the preservation of the facilities, the restoration works performed at the time to adapt them to the new functional requirements caused unrecoverable alterations to the layout and the spa-tial characteristics of the rooms.