La riforma di E. Basile del complesso all’Arenella della Tonnara Florio: le origini dell’imprenditoria climatico-sanitaria a Palermo sul Crepuscolo della Belle Époque

Basile's project for the transformation of the Tonnara Florio dell’Arenella into an overall use structure includes five planimetric versions (marked in sequence with Roman numerals). Of this singular assignment, which Basile must have faced not without some reservations given the inevitable transfiguration of the now historicized building of the "Quattro Pizzi" (small but incisive stereometry that still at the time played the role of coastal reference in the of the Gulf of Palermo, and moreover conceived by Giachery, his father's teacher), there are no known implementation methods, actual wishes of the client and cost estimates. Among the project drawings found to date (but it is not certain that there are no others), in addition to the five floor plans and the single elevation drawing, relating to the elevation of the front towards the gulf which could belong to both the fourth and the fifth version, there are neither sketches nor preparatory studies nor sections and architectural or construction details. Yet it is clear that, despite a clear general order from the start, many second thoughts had to be made during the design process; among other things, it is likely that the different solutions, represented with the same degree of graphic detail, were drawn up by Basile to provide, obviously upon request, the client with some margins of choice, however on the same type of architectural organism that it acts as a common denominator for the different versions (a customary practice at the time for major clients, usually public, whose propensities Basile used to drive in a subliminal way with studied differences with respect to the version he wanted to adopt). The new complex would have had four new buildings around the original courtyard, planted for this purpose with a minimal garden which in the first plan presents a design, replicated with corrective variations in the other versions, with informal flower beds cut out by a double system of avenues ( a primary carriage open to vehicles with an ellipsoid course to connect the entrance hall with the access portico to the hall, and a secondary one with a network of paths), and a forepart wing (for bedrooms, toilet compartments and living rooms ) prominent on the cliff which, once built on the terrace of the pre-existing, should have encapsulated the windmill built by Giachery, whose memory would have been recalled in the roof terrace by a crenellated tower, with an octagonal shape, and on the elevation from a false forepart (set on the string course). The four new buildings on the courtyard, apart from the hallways and vestibules or the different classes of representative rooms and the stairwells and stairways, would have been divided by theories of environments (mainly bedrooms but presumably also local of care or stay) cadenced on the spans of as many galleries (three of which facing the courtyard and the one to the north-west towards the coast) and would have taken the place of the old structures, incorporating the historicist factory of Giachery with a tower quadrangular shape, widely windowed with giant round arch arches (with rusticated radial archivolts and excess key ashlars) and defined by turricular cantonals with a polygonal base soaring above the attic wall and equipped with battlements and lightning rods in wrought iron. Without vertical architectural scores, the various fronts would have presented objective wall facings, characterized only by the isodomal settlements of ashlar blocks (pillow, in the high basement band, and plain ashlar, between the two string courses and the crowning) and by archivolts (of archways and openings) as well as by the cantonals, ordered according to symmetrical compositions in single compartments that are dissimilar to each other, only by extension (in relation to the size of the relative body of the building). Finally, from the comparison of the five planimetric versions, two main series of projects can be distinguished: the first, formed by the first three plans, proposes three solutions which, while distorting the pre-existing structure, support, in principle, the original perimeter shape (therefore with the building to the south-east not perfectly orthogonal to the rest of the complex) and, instead, have appreciable variations both in the positioning, either on the south-east or on the north-west front, of the large hall (the one that later in Villa Igiea would become the Hall of Mirrors with the colonnade on the large pseudo bow-window and the allegorical wall cycle painted by Ettore De Maria Bergler with the collaboration of Luigi Di Giovanni and Michele Cortegiani), both in the configuration of the carriage entrance hall from piazza Arenella, both in the positioning of the solarium, to practice the thalassot.

Il progetto di Basile per la trasformazione in struttura d’uso complessivo della Tonnara Florio dell’Arenella passa da ben cinque versioni planimetriche (contrassegnate in sequenza con numeri romani). Di questo singolare incarico, che Basile deve avere affrontato non senza qualche riserva vista l’inevitabile trasfigurazione dell’oramai storicizzato corpo di fabbrica dei «Quattro Pizzi» (piccola ma incisiva stereometria che ancora all’epoca rivestiva il ruolo di riferimento costiero nell’ambito del Golfo di Palermo, e per di più ideata da Giachery, maestro di suo padre), non si conoscono modalità realizzative, effettivi desiderata della committenza e previsioni di spesa. Fra gli elaborati di progetto ad oggi reperiti (ma non è detto che non ve ne siano altri), oltre alle cinque planimetrie e all’unico disegno di prospetto, relativo all’alzato del fronte verso il golfo che potrebbe appartenere tanto alla quarta quanto alla quinta versione, non figurano né schizzi né studi preparatori e nemmeno sezioni e particolari architettonici o costruttivi. Eppure è evidente che, ad onta di un ordinamento generale chiaro fin dall’inizio, non pochi dovettero essere i ripensamenti durante l’iter progettuale; è, tra l’altro, verosimile che le diverse soluzioni, rappresentate con lo stesso grado di approfondimento grafico, siano state redatte da Basile per fornire, evidentemente su richiesta, alla committenza alcuni margini di scelta, tuttavia su uno stesso tipo di organismo architettonico che fa da comune denominatore per le diverse versioni (una prassi consueta all’epoca per committenze di rilievo, solitamente pubbliche, le cui propensioni Basile era solito pilotare in maniera subliminale con studiate difformità rispetto alla versione che voleva fare adottare). Il nuovo complesso avrebbe avuto quattro nuovi corpi di fabbrica intorno al cortile originario, all’uopo impiantato con un giardino minimo che nella prima planimetria presenta un disegno, replicato con varianti correttive nelle altre versioni, ad aiuole informali ritagliate da un doppio sistema di viali (uno primario carrozzabile tracciato con andamento ellissoide per raccordare l’androne d’ingresso con il portico di accesso al salone, e uno secondario a rete di sentieri), ed un’ala ad avancorpo (per stanze da letto, comparti di servizi igienici e salotti) prominente sulla scogliera che, una volta edificata sulla terrazza della preesistenza, avrebbe dovuto incapsulare il mulino a vento realizzato da Giachery, la cui memoria sarebbe stata richiamata nella terrazza di copertura da un torrino merlato, con pianta di forma ottagonale, e sul prospetto da uno pseudo avancorpo in falso (impostato sulla fascia marcapiano).