Library staff
- FIORENTINO ROSSELLA MARIA - Manager
tel.: +39 011-090-6705
fax: +39 011-090-6798
email:
- Reference: bibli.infobca@polito.it
- Loans: bibli.prestito_bca@polito.it
- Rare: bibli.raribca@polito.it
- Sala Mollino: bibli.salamollino_bca@polito.it
Art, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Interior Architecture and Outfitting, Design, Drawing, Landscaping, Photography, Civil Engineering, Construction Science and Technology, Urban Planning and Technology, Topography and Cartography, Building Production, Humanities.
Regularly enrolled university students, inter-faculty students, teaching staff, researchers, technical-administrative staff.
The Library admits external users for consultation, subject to deposit of a document.
A thousand volumes, including books and periodicals made up the “first” library of the Faculty of Architecture of the Politecnico di Torino in 1958. Prof. Roberto Gabetti became its director, a position he held until 1986, the year the Library System was established. The library occupied two rooms on the third floor of the north-west tower of the Castello del Valentino.
In 1968, the first General Catalogue of Books and Periodicals was published. There were 150 periodicals and 6000 books.
In 1971 there was a move to the two long halls adjacent to the Botanical Garden. The upper hall housed books and periodicals, the ground floor hall housed the Cartographic Section, the Theses Section, and the Piedmont Section, which collected all monographs on the cultural, artistic, architectural and urban history of our Region.
In 1973, the library acquired archive material, including the professional archive of Carlo Mollino.
In 1982 a new move brought the library to where it is today, in the former aeronautical laboratories (south courtyard).
In those years, director Roberto Gabetti, during the inauguration of the academic year, reiterated that: “The connection between philosophy and technology enters into the training of the architect as fundamental... and since the faculties of architecture have a recent history and since their reorganisation dates back to even more recent decades, 'funds' of historical relevance are lacking in Italian architecture libraries: it is therefore necessary to side the policy of updates with an in-depth analysis of antiquarian catalogues, in order to reform ex-novo those bibliographical references necessary to support ongoing research...”
So the Library of Architecture is a rich library, capable of stretching thin roots into the past with the acquirement of ancient texts, focused on the present with an almost frantic need to keep up to date with the acquisition of new texts.
In 2008, the library expanded its space in the Manica Nuova (Zanella Hall) and renovated the existing spaces.
A historical profile of the Library was drawn for the exhibition organised for the acquisition of the “Luca Beltrami” fund, promoted by the head of the Central Library of Architecture Prof. Elena Tamagno. Cf.: Politecnico di Torino. Library System. Central Library of Architecture (BCA), Roberto Gabetti e la Biblioteca di Architettura 1958 - 1988, Turin, Castello del Valentino, 7 July 1988.
Theses from 1 to 12599 can be consulted by request, for a maximum of 4 titles in half a day and a maximum of 8 in the whole day; theses 12600 to 16538 (December 2017) can be consulted on the open shelf in the Sala Zanella (Zanella Hall). As of 2018, theses are no longer stored in hard copy. Reproduction is not permitted, unless explicitly and formally authorised by the author; the library does not contact the author for this purpose and does not provide the author’s personal details.
The collection of periodicals prior to the current year can be consulted by request in the Zanella Hall for a maximum of 4 volumes/files on the half-day and a maximum of 8 on the full day.
Rare and valuable material can be consulted by appointment:
e-mail: bibli.raribca@polito.it
The monographs and periodicals of the FULL Fund can be consulted at the headquarters of the FULL - The Future Urban Legacy Lab Interdepartmental Centre:
c/o OGR Tech, corso Castelfidardo 22
email full@polito.it
Sito web: https://full.polito.it/
The monographs and periodicals of the China Room Fund can be consulted at the China Room Centre in the Castello del Valentino:
email: china.room@polito.it
Sito web: http://chinaroom.polito.it/
When borrowing a book, you accept the BCA’s Lending System Rules (see section below).
All current book material can be borrowed except reference, large format, rare or valuable books.
A maximum of 4 volumes from the Central Library of Architecture may be loaned to each individual user at the same time.
The duration of the loan is 14 days + 14 days for renewal, which must be done at the self-service station or via the web.
A returned book may be borrowed again by the same person only from the second day after its return.
Returning a book in order to immediately take out a copy of the same, is not allowed.
Borrowing several copies of the same book, even in different editions, is not allowed.
A delay in the return of a loaned book of more than three days produces a loan suspension for a number of days equal to the accumulated delay.
After a six-month delay, the student’s career will be blocked at the Student secretariat until the return is made.