La grande espansione: dal primo al secondo ciclo edilizio

The article investigates the evolution of the building sector in Italy between the economic recovery in the fifties and the oil crisis in the early seventies. Special attention is devoted to the controversial relationship between public and private players, which proved to be a crucial factor of the productive expansion of those years. As a matter of fact, this phase, although suffered some setbacks, was marked by exceptional growth rates and a conflictual relationship between government regulation and free private initiative, as the ongoing uncertainty of the regulatory framework clearly emphasized. After defining the legislative framework of those years, the second part focuses on quantitative and typological outcomes of the building activity, which was largely supported by private initiative, compared to a declining public contribution. For at least part of this sector, such a growth brought about a remarkable transformation in technology and labour organization, making traditional models of production coexist with increased mechanization.