PSI - Issue 11

Massimiliano Lucchesi et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 11 (2018) 177–184 M. Lucchesi, B. Pintucchi, N. Zani/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

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central courtyard. In the basement, warehouses and cellars are directly connected to the second body of the building overlooking the canal in the Monte Pio ports. The small windows of the cellars communicating with the canal can be seen near the pavement in Fig. 2a). The U-shaped building is made up of masonry groin vaults on two levels. Each level consists of thirty spans, some of which have partially or totally collapsed due to Allied bombing raids in the Second World War. Figures 4a) and b) show pictures of the vaults covering the lower and upper levels, respectively. Further vaulted rooms lie under the street and connect directly with the canal. As already mentioned, the overall structure of this part of the building is quite imposing, given its significant extension and considerably ample spaces. In contrast to what has happened to many other cellars in Livorno, which have over time been divided up amongst different owners, these have remained in a single owner’s hands over the years, thus maintaining their integrity. Unfortunately however, a heavy handed, invasive restructuring carried out in the post-war years did not respect the architectural or structural features of the original building. A partial view of this intervention is shown in the picture in Fig. 5b). In the following we present some of the numerical investigations conducted to verify the structural stability of the aforementioned second body of the building (red part in Fig.3); these checks have been performed in accordance with the current Italian Building Code (hereafter referred to as NTC).

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Fig. 2. Facades overlooking (a) Via Borra, (b) the Monte Pio ports; (c) view from above [from Google maps].

Fig. 3. Building floorplan: the two main bodies are labeled.

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