Piazza Grande, via Luigi Albinelli, via Francesco Selmi
Almost thirty years after the competition proposed for the site of Piazza Matteotti, in 1960 the Cassa di Risparmio launched another tender for the design of its headquarters, after moving from the premises of the Town Hall.
The project is part of the 1958 Plan which aims, for the historical centre, at the decongestion of vehicle traffic through the decentralisation of some managerial and administrative functions outside.
The site of the lot purchased by the bank on the south side of Piazza Grande brings the main public space in the city back to the dimensions existing before the construction of the Umbertine Palace of Justice, demolished in 1963.
Following the unsatisfactory outcome of the consultation, the task was entrusted to the Gio Ponti studio, one of the most important Italian architects of the twentieth century, author a few years before the Pirelli skyscraper in Milan.
The need to reconcile the requirements imposed by the Superintendence with those of the commission appointed by the Municipality, composed of some of the most authoritative designers of the time: Franco Albini, Giovanni Michelucci, Ludovico Quaroni, led to a considerable delay in the drafting of the project and the abolition of some interesting preliminary solutions, which, in line with the research and language of architecture, the Milanese author proposed: a front composed of high openings on the ground floor and hexagonal and diamond shaped windows.
The current solution, designed in 1966, is designed to fit more into the context, proposing a facing brick cladding, a porch with round arches on the ground floor in continuity with that of the Town Hall and the recovery of the height corresponding to the eaves line of the adjacent bishop's palace.
Piazza Giacomo Matteotti
Although it is contained in the directives of the restoration plan as well as the demolition of Piazza XX Settembre, the construction of Piazza Matteotti is more complex and lasts for almost the entire first half of the twentieth century. After the first project of 1913 drawn up by Eng. Parisi of the municipal technical office, we have to wait for the initiative of the podesta in 1933 to start by Eng. Zaccaria the first demolitions and the agreement with the IACP, which started the construction of the neighborhood of public housing in Villa S. Caterina for a part of the displaced.
After a series of unfinished projects that substantially changed the appearance of the square, such as the one that provided for the construction of a building on the front of the Via Emilia or the competition for the headquarters of the Cassa di Risparmio, in 1939, following the agreement with the Institute of Insurance buyer of the area, the solution was defined by architects Corrado Corradini of Modena and Mario Loreti of Rome, author of important projects in collaboration with figures such as Sergio Musmeci and Cesare Valle. It involves the construction on the western and northern sides of the square of two three-storey porticoed buildings composed of rational trilithic elements that attempt to reconcile the needs of representativeness with the search for a modern language.
The outbreak of the Second World War imposed a new interruption and it was only in 1949 that the Corassori junta and engineer Mario Pucci managed to complete the project, thanks to the intervention of INA. The final arrangement of the 1949 square, named after G. Matteotti, takes up some of the lines of the 1930s project.
In particular, two porticoed buildings were built on the west and north sides, almost in the same position as previously planned.
Largo Aldo Moro
The "Fermo Corni" Institute was founded in 1921 under the name of "Royal School of Arts and Crafts Workers". After becoming the "Royal Industrial Technical School" in 1933, in 1942 it finally became the Industrial Technical Institute. In the new phase of development of the economy not only in Modena, following the end of the war, the importance of the Institute for the training of workers specialized in the relevant mechanical and electrical engineering sectors justifies the construction of a new building located between Via Emilia Ovest, Viale Tassoni and Viale Jacopo Barozzi, in place of the previous building seriously damaged by bombing.
The project was drawn up by the Technical Office of the Municipality of Modena on behalf of the Province of Modena and carried out by the Consortium between the cooperatives of the Province of Modena.
From 1960, the design and construction of the various parts continued until 1970.
The two buildings are connected by a third one, behind the boundary of the lot, facing Largo Aldo Moro. This attention to urban integration is one of the most interesting points of the project.