HISTORICAL BOOK

LA RINASCENTE
FRANCO ALBINI AND FRANCA HELG
ALI AL HADI JAAFAR
MARIA CAMILA RODRIGUEZ RUIZ
MARIA PAULA VILLA CABRERA
LEONARDO VESPRINI

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO

A.Y. 19/20

SECTION A
LUIGI SPINELLI
FEDERICO BUCCI
POLO TERRITORIALE DI MANTOVA
 La Rinascente - Franco Albini
Historical Book

content

behind the idea 3

Albini: the mind 9

ancient rinascente 15

bibliography 22
intro

The compositional analysis develops around the concept of “abstraction of the past”.
It has been noted, in fact, how the five buildings in the studio are in direct relation with
Roman architectural history and its most splendid periods. These buildings, designed by
different architects, while showing modern forms and in step with their times, succeed,
through a careful and masterly reworking of the architectural elements typical of ancient
structures, to create a tangible link with the past.
The analysis that has been carried out on the different buildings, therefore, tries to relate
the main characteristics, found on the study buildings, with the formal and architectural
solutions of pre-existing buildings in the Roman city and referable to the different histori-
cal and artistic periods. This interesting procedural approach makes it possible to com-
pare the apparently distant realities of the different architectural apparatus and relate their
aesthetic, structural and functional characteristics, highlighting the intrinsic and resonant
link between past and present realities in their most intimate aspects. The focus is there-
fore on the study of the context, spatial composition, language and sequence of spaces
that distinguish the various buildings.
Through the study of the elements that make up the building, therefore, we come to the
identification of the relationships that unite the modern with the past and the abstract
process used by the architect towards history.
behind
the idea
 “all the people of
Rome wanted the
new Rinascente”
Rinascente in those years represented one
of the growing business universes in the
commerce sector in Italy.
In the 1950s and 1960s, it also represen-
ted a company intent on a powerful expan-
sion on the Italian territory with the opening
of new offices and the construction of new
warehouses with a new modern Italian lan-
guage.
After the war the company was dealing
with severe damages. During this years,
they were dealing with the reconstruction
of one the most important Flagship stores,
Rinascente Milano, with was destroyed
during the bombings. In 1950 the firm was
able to reopen the iconic store in Piazza
del Duomo in Milan, where the facades
were designed by Ferdinando Reggiori.
For this inauguration, also the new logo
designed by Albe Steiner was displayed.
Four years after, while Umberto Brustio
Aldo Borletti
who was still leading the company since
1939 when he was elected president, the
award “Compasso d’Oro” was stablished.
This idea was product of Gio Ponti and Al-
berto Rosselli, while the name was given
by Albe Steiner, designer of the awards
logo.
During the coming years, that Aldo Borlet-
Umberto
Brustio
ti and Cesare Brustio lead the company,
the economic boom for the firm really rook
off. The company was becoming involved
in new markets like supermarkets chains
and retail sales for foodstuffs. For this re-
ason, in 1961, the company decides to
implement a new Flagship Store in city of
Rome, commissioning architects Franco
Albini and Franca Helg for the design and
execution of the building in Piazza Fiume.
The Roman case has it that the two com-
missions to build the company’s local offi-
ces go to Franco Albini, for the building in
Piazza Fiume, and to Ignazio Gardella for
the building in the center of Rome, unfor-
tunately never done.
Every building today - and there is no men-
tion of the “new” ones (airports, stations,
factories, offices, etc.) but even the “pe-
rennials” (houses, schools, hospitals, ho-
tels, etc.) - each building today represents
a problem for which the precedents are
not needed, in a vastness and speed of
execution never found in a task that is no
longer in the architectural glorification of a
past or present, but in a direct participa-
tion of architecture to promote a future of
civilization.
Formal and structural invention: the result
of research occurs in this building, in the
clarity of its fundamental plan, in the visual
participation of the structure in architectu-
re. A unique geometric figure derived from
the irregularity of the lot, the rectangle is
for sale, the side by side wing is for offices,
services, warehouses and vertical con-
nections.
Essentiality and unity: essential and im-
peccable pint from which the unity of the
building derives.
”When the first Rinascente was open,
Rome was already a growing city that was
touching on one million inhabitants; a pro-
vincial town with an umbertino style, popu-
lar during the late-nineteenth century reign
of Umberto I, with the old clock station on
the pediment and a trilussian soul.
In this Rome of sleepy carriages rolling
along the sampietrini paving, the opening
of the Piazza Colonna department store
was a huge event. In the years that passed
the building became a point of reference
for life in the capital.
You would hear groups of friends asking
each other, ‘Where should we get together
next time?’; Businessmen would ask each
other ‘Where should we meet?’ through
crank telephones to arrange an evening of
entertainment. The answer was always the
same: ‘At Rinascente’.
A new style was born in Rome, the Rina-
scente style: this functional and luxurious
building for the time coincided with the ci-
ty’s change in tastes.
With its extraordinary size, with its archi-
tecture being a level above many other
buildings of that time, but also with its ‘ho-
mely feel’, this building in Piazza Colonna
was the embodiment of a Rome stepping
into the very near future - a little less rural,
more open to progress, always in harmony
with itself, but keeping a fixed eye on Eu-
rope.
In the following years, how many buildings
in Rome were inspired by the building in
Piazza Colonna? How many villas took in-
spiration from Rinascente’s wide staircase
with brass hand railing for their own halls?
They were so much that the architectural
style of that period, preceding the rise of
Marcello Piacentini’s era, considered the
building as an exemplary model, a style
to follow. It is in this way that the people
of Rome, the clothes, homeware, furniture
and beauty products promoted in Rina-
scente shaped a style in a Rome.
Meanwhile, the city of Rome was increa-
singly changing its appearance, its habits,
Cesare Brustio
and its customs. Rinascente was created
for the bourgeois of the center and imme-
diately broke down the barriers of the inna-
te Roman distrust. It had established itself
by widening its area of influence and its
clientele from the central neighborhoods to
those of the Flaminio, Prati di Termini and
expanding it to an increasingly wider range
of social circles.”
Umberto Brustio retired as the company’s top manager after nearly forty
years at the helm, accepting the position of Honorary President.
Senator Borletti’s son Aldo was elected company president and also
held the position of general manager, together with Cesare and Giorgio
Brustio. The most important individual in the company’s top management
was Cesare Brustio, general manager and company vice-president.
5
typological
problem
To define certain regulations for this type
of buildings. Large spaces are needed
without structural elements that interrupt
the large space. Great flexibility not only in
the plant, but also in systems that can serve
the entire place. No windows are needed,
because natural light is not necessary, it
is necessary to have the best display of
the products so the light will always be
artificial, in some cases natural lights are
used in skylights but it is always diffused
with domes or with large openings that
dim the light. A clear way to use corridors,
exits etc.
Expression: closed building to house
the shelves on the perimeter walls, it
expresses itself with accents, such as the
opening on the prospect of Piazza Fiume
(representative), no window, except for
the windows on the same facade, the
glass volume of the escalators, an internal
external architecture; all elevations have
the same formal dignity: facade building.
The elliptical staircase on the corner, with
a free plan.
Functionality: to access vertical
6
connections you must necessarily pass
between the windows of a sales area.
The intervention of Lombard architects
within the city of Rome after the sixteenth
and baroque works has become
increasingly rare due above all to the
different approaches that professionals
develop in the two areas. This intellectual
rift becomes evident above all at the
outbreak of the architectural debate on
rational style with the formation of two
real schools of thought: the school of
Milan and that of Rome. (case of Piacenza
universities, exceptions and competitions
- BBPR euro post - interventions in the
suburbs away from the city itself)
It is also necessary to take into account
the difference of the client: the needs of
the cultured northern industrial bourgeois
clientele differ from those of the state
bodies and the Roman bourgeoisie,
enough to make a comparison of tastes
and habits difficult and to discourage
those looking for an easy meeting.
Albini, therefore, is found to be almost a
white fly within the Roman architectural
panorama.
The task for him is arduous: to build a
building in Piazza Fiume, opposite the
Aurelian walls and adjacent to via Salaria,
a building capable of communicating with
the city but at the same time playing the
part of a commercial enterprise of national
scale but strong Milanese background.
The new skilful building exudes a marked
“environmental care”, respectful of a rich
and distinctive urban scene, almost a
Roman adaptation of the Milanese style.
Being able to find a deep relationship with
the city, Albini remaining in contradiction in
a continuous comparison between modern
architecture and antiquity. (consider
whether to add Ethiopia ridolfi)
In this building Albini tries to re-read
through a compositional discourse of
rigorous technological root and the sign
of a precise stylistic will, the echo of the
Roman tradition, not contaminated by
folklore but historically revived in all its
complexity.
Leaving the imperial Rome of the 20s and
30s behind, always in stark contrast to
historic Rome, Albini tries in a cultured way
to re-interpret and not imitate the past.
The problem of the large salesman has
undergone radical changes, from the
nineteenth-century model of the centripetal
organism in which the various rooms were
connected with showy scenic effects from
large central spaces at full height, we
moved on to the solution with overlapping
floors of equal surface illuminated by
perimeter openings, to finally reach the
spasmodic use of artificial lighting and
the abandonment of the side holes: the
department stores have thus become
places often isolated from the external
environment, characterized by artificial
lights and forced ventilation, boxes with
shelves without windows .
Unity is achieved through the purity of
the volume, which completely hides the
supporting structure: acquiring a purely
advertising value, but losing the relationship
with the surrounding environment, not
integrating with the shape of the city.
La Rinascente goes exactly in the
opposite direction from Breuer’s project,
and starting from the reinterpretation of
the city tries to overcome the constraints
imposed by the typological model of the
department store, looking for a vibrant and
spatial approach capable of ensuring both
the right visibility (commercially speaking)
, is the right integration.To obtain this
connection, however, starting from a
closed block structure, Albini adopts an
approach derived from a careful analysis
and reorganization of the given theme.
His choice therefore falls on the
performance of the structural part, capable
of projecting the actual dimensions of the
internal environments from the outside.
This choice, present since the first project,
took on the role of comparison between
the human scale and that of the usable
spaces. If in the first solution, however, the
plastic value of the surface of the volume
was given by the play of light and dark
produced by the portals, the final design
relegates the simple “structure” value to
the structural part and the plastic value of
the volume pours onto the curtain walls.
7
 the minds
albini/helg
main
fact

1930
He open a studio with Palanti and Camus
in Milan
1933
House in Steel structure for the V Triennale
di Milano with R. Camus, G. Minoletti, G.
Mazzoleni, G. Pagano, G. Palanti).
1905
Franco Albini born in Robbiate (Como). 1936
1920 Ancient Goldsmith Show, VI Triennale di
Milano (with G. Romano)
Franca Helg is born in Milan.
1938
He partecipated at design of “Milano Ver-
de”, Milano with I. Gardella, G. Minoletti,
G. Pagano, G. Palanti, G. Predaval, G.
Romano.
1939
Project for the “Palazzo dell’Acqua e della
Luce” EUR-Roma with I. Gardella, G. Mi-
noletti, G. Palanti, G. Romano, L. Fontana.
1945
Franca Help grduates from Politecnico de
Milano.
1945
After the war, he becamed the director of
Costruzioni-Casabella with Palanti.
1949
Hotel-refuge for children “Pirovano”, Cervi-
nia (with L. Colombini)
1941
1949
Exhibition of “Black and White” and Scipio-
He have a chair as professor in IUAV in Ve-
ne at the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.
nice.

1945
1905

1930

1940

10
1950
Arrangement of the Municipal Galleries of
Palazzo Bianco, Genova

1951
Restoration and accommodation in the
museum of Palazzo Rosso, Genoa
1963
San Lorenzo Treasure Museum, Genoa He won the In/Arch Prize for the “La Rina-
scente”
1952-56
He was the director of the CIAM summer
1964-65
shool in Venice. 1984
Albini and Helg Recieve the “La Rinascen-
He his working in collaboration with Franca Franca Helg starts teaching Architectural
te Compasso d’Oro”prize, and the In/Arch
Helg. composition in Politecnico di Milano.
prize.
1957 1967
1989
With Franca Helg, he design the new La He recieve the gold medal from the muni- 1977
Franca Helg dies in Milano.
Rinascente in Piazza Fiume In Rome. cipality of Milan. Franco Albini died.
1950

1960

1977

1984
11
biography
Franco Albini was born in Robbiate (Como)
on October 17, 1905.
In 1929 he began his first professional
experiences: he became a collaborator
of the Ponti and Lancia studio, where he
assimilated interests for decoration and
design.
In 1930 he opened a studio in Milan to-
gether with G. Palanti and R. Camus. Gi-
ven the closed and difficult professional
context, it directs its projects especially
towards the design and furniture sector,
developing a remarkable design capaci-
ty linked above all to craftsmanship and
production quality, with a confidential rela-
tionship with the techniques and materials
used; the knowledge of artisan techniques
was developed by Albini during the period
spent in the Ponti and Lancia studio.
The 1932 marked the meeting Persico -
decisive for his formation - thanks to whi-
ch he came into contact with the group of
rationalist architects who orbited around
Persico himself, in Pagano and the maga-
zine “Casabella”.
Franco Albini
This period is also characterized by the de-
bate on Rationalism, in which Albini partici-
pates in the wake of the Milanese school,
collaborating on projects and events, while
maintaining a secluded position in accor-
dance with a sensitivity inclined to a more
“personal” work dimension, participating in
the Triennials and other exhibitions, con-
centrating its activity on interior design and
exhibition design.
In this period of training, he refined his re-
search in the field of techniques and mate-
rials, deepening the study of both Central
European architecture and the testimonies
of the past.
During the world conflict, he continued
his collaboration with Palanti and kept his
friendship with Pagano alive and contacts
with Giolli and De Carlo opened a new di-
mension of problems in Albini and allowed
him to reach a more mature awareness
of reality: there is awakening of a social
conscience, the doubt of inadequate in-
tervention, of the insufficiency of tools and
methods for major problems.
Its activity and its name are closely linked
to this city, which in those years invited the
architects of the Milanese school to colla-
borate with the municipal technical offices.
Through the close lies the profit collabo-
ration with Caterina Marcenaro, Albini fa-
ces a series of decisive experiences, whi-
ch through the relationship with tradition,
continuity with places and environmental
pre-existences, lead to the definition and
methodological of the techniques of the
restoration of the principles of closed mu-
seography .
At the same time, he designed the Piro-
vano hotel-refuge for children in Cervinia,
which testifies to the original interpretation
of neorealism and actively participates in
the debate regarding the design of popular
neighborhoods such as the INA building in
Parma, which marks the point of compari-
son between a rationalist architecture and
adherence to the relationship with environ-
mental existences.
His teaching experience then continues at
the Polytechnic of Turin and then in Milan.
Albini continues to collaborate and parti-
cipate in the architectural debate with the
main exponents of Milanese rationalism;
but in the early 1950s, however, it repre-
sents a turning point for Albini’s career, for
the association in Franca Helg’s studio,
which brings a contribution after his pro-
fessional activity.
In 1952, Franca Helg and Franco Albini be-
gan working together and traveled a suc-
cessful and successful career in the field
of architectural design, rehabilitation and
 refunctionalization of historic buildings, ur-
ban planning and industrial design.
But above all the as activity is represented
by the project for La Rinascente in Rome
in 1957 where the relationship between an
architectural design project and technolo-
gy becomes more intense.
In 1955 and he was awarded the “La Rina-
scente Compasso d’Oro” prize for Luisa’s
chair and in the context of a fervent activity
as designer and participation in exhibitions
and installations.
Research and creativity were great allies
of the Albini-Helg society and both archi-
tects shared the objective of integrating
the craft trade and design in detail in mass
production processes, whether in the field
of architecture or industrial design. The te-
chnological and serial dimension of the ar-
chitectural project was also a constant fo-
cus of attention. Not only in the search for
the repetition or extension of built models,
but rather in the ability to find plausible te-
chnical solutions to be applied in various
scales, environments and architectural
programs.
In the early sixties, the architects Antonio
Piva, in 1962, and Marco Albini, joined in
society in 1965. After the death of Franco
Albini in 1977, the work team continued
the project work under the leadership of
Helg .
Franca Helg
In 1963 Albini designed the arrangement
of the stations for the first Milan metro
line and the Zoja spa. In the second half
of the 1960s, assignments for industrial
construction and residential construction
became more numerous.There are also
numerous works in the field of restoration
and furnishings and fittings.
She offered design specialization seminars
in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and
Spain. Teaching was for Helg the oppor-
tunity to extend and share his convictions;
He encouraged students to search and
build authentic and personal action and
thought models. And his mark marked and
guided several generations of architects.
Albini-Helg worked on special designs
for different firms: objects from Brionve-
ga, Cassina, Arflex, Arteluce and Poggi,
among others, bear their seal. Franca Helg
was especially involved in the creative and
production processes for Vittorio Bonacina
and San Lorenzo.
13
 La Rinascente
ancient
abstraction
of the past
For this building a historical comparison is
made with the Baroque, being a building
with flexible and open spaces, the analysis
will be carried out on the facade and the
stairs, two elements that completely give
the face of the entire building.
First there is necessary to understand the
building itself, being in the condition of
having to build a second department
store in the city of Rome to support
the historical center in the center, the
Borletti family, owners of the group “La
Rinascente, choose a free lot just out-
side the Aurelian walls in Piazza Fiume, at
the crossroads between via Salaria and
via Aniene. The chosen site is placed in a
perfect perspective of promotion and in-
crease in sales: although on the edge
of the historic city it is located at the
16
beginning of the nineteenth and twentieth
century expansion districts, in addition,
via Salaria (ancient Roman consular road)
connects the bourgeois districts and hi-
gh-places in Trieste and Parioli. The bu-
ilding then conforms to a first example of
commercial decentralization and a new sa-
les area outside the crowded and chaotic
historical center of Rome.
The choice of this particular strategic
lot, however, brings with it the deman-
ding task of creating a building capable
of dealing not only with the mixed fabric
of the city expansions often characterized
by an eclectic style, such as the building
on the other side of via Salaria with
which the department store acts as a
counterpart and with which they form the
bridgehead, identifying the beginning of

via Salaria and the Conjunction with cor-
so d’Italia and via Veneto; but also with
the historical and monumental remains
of the Aurelian walls built in the third cen-
tury AD. which run bri-bes in Corso d’Italia
and identify the border between historical
and contemporary.Analysis of the con-
text and highli-ghting the layout of the
Aurelian walls.Comparison between the
urban si-tuation of the La Rinascente and
the roman district of “spina di borgo”: (a)
actual street layout, (b) “spina di bor-go”
street layout, (c) building block layout
and (d) “spina di borgo buil-ding block
layout.
The historical preexistences and modern
interventions were therefore analyzed to
understand how, given the subsequent
stratifications and architectural langua-
ges present in the area, the new Albini
building can be seen as an element of
continuity between history and moder-
nity, establishing relationships both with
its buildings. both contemporary and old.
Starting from the identification of the Aure-
lian walls as an element of temporal conti-
nuity. We have identified buildings of parti-
cular interest, “changeable” over time, and
replaceable with buildings from another
era comparable to them typologically or
in size. The spaces occupied by “modern”
buildings are freed and again occupied
by the architectural examples of Baro-
que and Roman Renaissance buildings:
this game thus leads to the definition of an
ancient new hypothetical fabric.By analy-
zing the typological plans of the com-
parison buildings and the ground floor plan
of the department store, it is possible
to identify similar spatial composition
schemes. Even analyzing the urban fabric,
one realizes how the historical variation of
some key elements does not result in the
loss of value of the new building. The work
done by Albini, in fact, leads to the creation
of an extremely modern building that can
17

stand up to the comparison with Roman
historicity. (a) Identification of the building
in today’s urban context. (b) Identifica-
tion of buildings of considerable importan-
ce within the urban fabric and comparable
with Baroque and Renaissance buildings.
(c) Typological replacement of modern bu-
ildings with those of the Baroque and Re-
naissance periods.
The expression of the building is closed,
the shelves on the perimeter walls, it
expresses itself with accents, such as the
opening on the prospect of Piazza Fiume
(representative), no window, except for the
windows on the same facade, the glass
volume of the escalators, an internal ex-
18
ternal architecture; all elevations have the
same formal dignity: facade building. The
elliptical staircase on the corner, with a free
plan.
Will contemporary civilization be configu-
red in a style that is naturally representa-
tive, as in the ancients, of a higher order?
Albini’s “rigorous” answer: a contemporary
style - not to be confused with a contem-
porary folklore - can only derive from an
absolute and exclusive and peremptory
appeal to the search for procedures in whi-
ch an architecture act.
It can be considered as an imperious bu-
ilding, since it poses the harsh aspects of
a construction truth, instead of concealing
it with aesthetic artifices. It does not seek
to be pretentious from its design, if it does
not demonstrate in a simple way its own
complexity, without putting any type of in-
nuendo or poetic that may affect the true
version of the building and the purpose
that it was intended to have.
From this, the authority and lesson of this
work and its legitimacy in belonging wi-
thout equivocation to the architecture that
expresses modern civilization, which iden-
tifies itself in it, in the reality of its work, in
the technique, in its method and of its pro-
duction and culture.
Rosy color of the masonry, as an environ-
mental allusion to the surrounding context
(perhaps to the walls), albini ranks two bu-
ildings one: one ancient and one modern.
This Albini architecture is easily a creative
fact, and not an environmental one, which
on this level fits into the civil process of hi-
story.
The interiors are made by Carlo Pagani
and Giancalro Ortelli, the highest degree
of characterization, so they deserve to be
pointed out as an example and a school.
In this case, the unique spiral staircase of
the back of the building, a staircase with
several details that emulate the baroque
details in the staircases, the fluid and de-
tached movement of the main structure,
the staircase seems an entity in itself whi-
ch has grown naturally within a completely
orthogonal structure that does not allow a
natural fluid movement, making the stairs
a natural element that emerges from the
structure and marks a milestone within the
building.
In this building albini tries to re-read throu-
gh a compositional discourse of rigorous
technological root and the sign of a pre-
cise stylistic will, the echo of the Roman
tradition, not contaminated by folklore but
historically revived in all its complexity.
Leaving behind the imperial Rome of the
20s and 30s, always in stark contrast with
historic Rome, Albini tries in a cultured way
to re-interpret and not imitate the past. In
this case the reinterpretation of the cha-
racteristics and aesthetic values of the
Baroque, with the spectacle in the details
and the naturalness of the structures and
profiles, leaving the building to be what it is
without major pretensions.
The problem of the large salesman has
undergone radical changes, from the ni-
neteenth-century model of the centripetal
organism in which the various rooms were
connected with showy scenic effects from
large central spaces at full height, we mo-
ved on to the solution with overlapping
floors of equal surface illuminated by pe-
rimeter openings, to finally arrive at the
spasmodic use of artificial lighting and the
abandonment of the side holes: the de-
partment stores have thus become places
often isolated from the external environ-
ment, characterized by artificial lights and
forced ventilation, boxes with shelves wi-
thout windows.
The most striking example of this change
can be seen in the Bijenkorf warehouse in
Rotterdam built on 29, partially destroyed
during the war and rebuilt by Breuer. The
new building is, contrary to the original,
made up of a full, monumental wall, in con-
trast with an immense Gabo sculpture.
Unity is achieved through the purity of the
volume, which completely hides the sup-
porting structure: acquiring a purely adver-
tising value, but losing the relationship with
the surrounding environment, not integra-
ting with the shape of the city.
La Rinascente goes exactly in the oppo-
site direction from Breuer’s project, and
starting from the reinterpretation of the city
tries to overcome the constraints imposed
by the typological model of the department
store, looking for a vibrant and spatial ap-
proach that can guarantee both the right
visibility (commercially speaking) , is the
right integration.
19
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