Seismic behaviour of modern heritage spatial structures: the Hall B of Turin Exhibition Centre by Pier Luigi Nervi

Turin Exhibition Centre consists of the main Hall B and the smaller adjacent Hall C, both designed and constructed by Pier Luigi Nervi (1947-1948, and 1950). In this work, Nervi combined for the first time his personal technique of ferrocement in a large-scale project with an extensive use of prefabrication. This paper, in particular, reports on the on the seismic behaviour of the Hall B. In fact, both halls were realized without accounting for seismic actions, but only for static configurations, in accordance with the technical standards of the time. To this aim, several Finite Element analyses of Hall B were performed in order: i) to assess the vulnerability of historical spatial structures to seismic actions, with special attention to Nervi’s structures; ii) to investigate the possible influence of non structural elements on the global dynamic response; iii) to contribute to increase existing knowledge about Nervi’s great legacy.