From the text to the practice. Insulation materials, building techniques and constructive practices in Udine and Verona refrigeration plants

The techniques regarding the preservation of perishable foodstuffs have been improving greatly since the early twentieth century, as shown in the textbooks of those times; however, the earliest buildings devoted to refrigeration and to the production of ice date back to the nineteenth century. The Centrale Frigorifera Specializzata in Verona and Stazione Frigorifera of Udine slaughterhouse can be taken as two meaningful study cases with a view to analysing the strict links between construction-related issues and the materials employed in order to achieve the insulating performances recommended by the textbooks. The Verona and Udine refrigeration plants possessed the features of ice producing and storing facilities that have turned them into pilot projects, thus underlining the transition – as far as insulating materials are concerned – between traditional techniques and the new solutions proposed by industry.