Eternit Kiosk
Object/Work Type
Exhibition Kiosks
Title Text
Eternit Kiosk
Creation Date
1910-1911
Descriptive Note Text
The Eternit company (subsequently Etex Group NV) was founded in 1905 in Zaventem, Belgium, by Alphonse Emsens, who had acquired a license to produce cement reinforced with asbestos fibers, applied in building and construction materials, such as roofing and facade products. The large multinational Etex Group is still primarily owned by the founding Emsens family.
The Eternit kiosk at the Turin 1911 exposition combined folkloric Alpine elements with product-specific materials. The dominant compositional feature is a slender, campanile-like corner tower, terminating in a pitched, faceted spire capped by a wrought-iron finial. The tower's upper part is clad in overlapping tiles laid in a diamond motif, possibly made of the fiber-cement product the pavilion was built to advertise. The campanile's mid-section employs exposed half-timbering with stuccoed panels, a direct quotation of Swiss and Tyrolean chalet construction.
The main volume shows a gabled roof and a projecting loggia with wooden balusters at the upper floor. The ground floor is opened by a multi-paneld window. A low wrought-iron palisade fence and stone entrance stair complete the perimeter, reinforcing the building's chalet-suisse charact
The kiosk was designed by engineers Riccio and Velati-Bellini and built by Impresa Quadri & Colombo.
Code in the 1911 Map
SIM a
Related Protagonists
