The Palazzo Cassa di Risparmi di Livorno by Luigi Vagnetti: An Iconic Melting Pot of Architectural Languages

The Palazzo of the Cassa di Risparmi di Livorno, currently the headquarters of the Livorno Foundation, stands in the city center of Livorno. Its current configuration is the product of the complex process of the post-World War II reconstruction plan for the city center, which traced the layout of the 1938 pre-war plan designed by Marcello Piacentini. The new reconstruction plan was approved in 1947, despite great opposition. The Palazzo of the Cassa di Risparmi was the first building to be constructed in the center based on the initiative of a private institution. It was built in the southwest corner of Piazza Grande, the former Piazza d'Armi, in continuity with the Tanzini block, the first reconstructed building block. The building was designed by the Roman architect Luigi Vagnetti, the same architect who had designed Palazzo Grande a short time earlier. The Palazzo of the Cassa di Risparmi di Livorno is an iconic container, built with a reinforced concrete frame structure, which houses a series of cultured citations, including diamond-pointed Pietra Serena ashlars, and highly stylized ovolo moldings. These elements were all reinterpreted through an original contemporary lexicon, which was also evident in the interiors designed by the author himself. This contribution aims to investigate the unpublished history of the building through the retrieval of archival materials and the use of digital survey techniques, which allows us to grasp the wealth of meaning, geometry, space, materials, and architectural features of this unique work.