Il tubo Innocenti. Un'invenzione industriale per la costruzione tradizionale

In the material culture of 20th Century Italy, this paper tells the story of an original industrial: a small steel coupler which, designed by Ferdinando Innocenti in 1934, allows the hanging of two steel tubes and the subsequent construction of spectacular scaffolding. Nicknamed, the Innocenti tube established itself in the craftmanship construction site post-war Italy as the ideal partner of reinforced concrete construction and, so, it immediately spread as temporary structure into the building sector (in which, today, it is still in use, if not with small modifications). But, until the mid- 1960s, the Innocenti system led a parallel life: an adventurous life alongside the large reinforced concrete structures, supporting the success of the Italian School of Engineering. Today the Innocenti tube and coupler is one of the most famous made in Italy building products. The paper is a synthesis of the study conducted within the research project SIXXI - 20th Century Structural Engineering. The Italian contribution (ERC Adv Grant, PI S. Poretti, T. Iori).