Italy's 546 Unfinished Buildings: A Third Way Between Demolition and Monumentalization

Italy has 546 unfinished public works requiring nearly €2 billion to complete, according to the government's S.I.M.O.I. database as of 2019, not counting private unfinished projects. The collective Alterazioni Video has provocatively framed this as the birth of a new style, 'Incompiuto,' questioning whether to demolish, reconvert, or historicize these structures. A third way proposes rewriting and redesigning unfinished buildings for redemption through an 'abaco'—a catalog categorizing each structure by context, material, dimensions, ownership, and degree of incompleteness (from foundations to full skeleton). This abaco aims to provide generic guidelines adaptable to specific cases, prioritizing safety and accessibility. A case study is the unfinished expansion of Milan's San Cristoforo station, designed by Aldo Rossi and Gianni Braghieri. Commissioned in 1975 by Ferrovie dello Stato as a terminal for the Milan-Paris car transport line, its function became obsolete, and a plan to convert it into a rest stop for pilgrims to Lourdes also failed; work stopped in 1990. The structure—a reinforced concrete skeleton with a steel frame intended for a copper roof—now sits in a wild park. In 2019, FS Sistemi Urbani held an international competition for the regeneration of the Milano Farini and San Cristoforo railway yards, won by OMA and Laboratorio Permanente. The station's skeleton was previously reinterpreted by studio Albori for the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale.