Reinforced concrete, industry and design: Balency prefabricated panels between France and Italy

After the Second World War the prefabricated construction became the main scope where an ‘international construction’ developed, completing the Modern Movement paradigms by a technological point of view. However, if the development of national patents and their international distribution allowed a common technical language, on the other side it didn’t prevent the growth of specific national characters. Specially, in the field of heavy prefabrication, the reinforced concrete wall panels represented a theme of effervescent architectural and technological research, engaged to the adaptation of ‘international’ patents to local productive and cultural specificities. The paper focuses on the Balency & Schul patented panel, analyzing its transition from France, where it was introduced in 1948 and updated until 1975, to Italy where the MBM firm acquired the Balency patent from 60s. The analysis is carry by the comparative study of French patents, French patents filed in Italy and Italian patents (conserved in the Historical Archive of the Italian Patent and Trademark Office) and by the original technical literature (manuals, handbooks, advertising, etc), identifying one or more case studies (in Italy and in France) to confirm the research hypothesis. The paper is part of the History of Construction topic which concerns the investigation of prefabricated building systems, an interest that has considerably increased.