The participation of the Municipality of Pavia in the realization of the international Hangar Ticinum competition , organized by TerraViva , a young association that deals with studies in the field of architecture, offered itself as an interesting opportunity to promote a survey of the architectural and sculptural heritage of the city.

Alongside the thirty finalist projects , which propose a new image and new functions for the Idroscalo, the exhibition unfolds in a path that allows you to deepen the face of the city in the period between the two world wars : the images selected from the Photo Library history of the Civic Museums document a moment of great change for the city, with new rationalist-style architecture.

The Idroscalo ideally opens this period of renewal and rethinking of the city: designed in 1924 by the young architect Giuseppe Pagano , who has just graduated from the Polytechnic of Turin, it looks like a large shelter for seaplanes, located on a bend in the Ticino and located in a strategic point a stone's throw from the confluent, where the Blue River meets the Naviglio, which connects Pavia to Milan. The grand opening of 1926, chaired by Mussolini himself, confirms the logistical importance attributed at the time to this futuristic river airport. In the following years, Pavia underwent an intense urban renewal .

In those years strategic choices were made for the future of the city , partly also following the national competition for the Town Plan, won in 1934 by Carlo Morandotti : the relocation of the San Matteo Hospital to a new complex built between 1927 and 1932 out of town; the conclusion of the centuries-old construction of the Cathedral; the idea of concentrating all the municipal-owned museums inside the Visconteo Castle, which was being restored; the plan for the new Castello district of 1935, from which the current district of Città Giardino was based; the construction of the new Ponte dell'Impero over the Ticino and the viale della Libertà .