Nervi, Pier Luigi

Nervi, Pier Luigi (pyĕr lwē`jē nĕr`vē), 1891–1979, Italian architectural engineer. Nervi is considered one of the foremost European architectural designers of the 20th cent. His first large work, the Giovanni Berta stadium at Florence (1930–32), won world acclaim for the daring and beauty of its cantilevered stairs and roof. Nervi experimented with prefabricated elements in the construction of the Italian air force base at Orbetello (1939). In the mid-1940s he developed ferro-cemento, a strong, light material composed of layers of steel mesh grouted together with concrete. With this material he was able to achieve complicated building units for vast and complex structures. His innovations made possible the intricate and beautiful buildings that have brought him world renown. Especially outstanding are his exposition halls at Turin (1949, 1950); the railway station, Naples (1954); and three Olympic buildings in Rome (1956–59). Nervi has also collaborated in such projects as the headquarters of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris (1953–57) and the George Washington Bridge bus station, New York City (1961–62).

Bibliography

See his New Structures (tr. 1963) and Aesthetics and Technology in Building (tr. 1965); study by A. L. Huxtable (1960).

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Nervi, Pier Luigi

(born June 21, 1891, Sondrio, Italy—died Jan. 9, 1979, Rome) Italian engineer and building contractor. He became internationally renowned for his invention of ferro-cement, a material of his own invention composed of dense concrete heavily reinforced with evenly distributed steel mesh that together give it both lightness and strength. His first significant projects included a series of airplane hangars in Italy (1935–41) conceived as concrete vaults with huge spans. In addition to designing buildings, he succeeded in building a sailboat with a ferro-cement hull only 0.5 in. (1.25 cm) thick. Ferro-cement was vital to his complex for the Turin Exhibition (1949–50), a prefabricated, corrugated cylindrical 309-ft (93-m) arch. Nervi worked on the UNESCO headquarters in Paris (1950) with Marcel Breuer and helped design Italy's first skyscraper, the Pirelli Building in Milan (1955–59). Although Nervi's primary concern was never aesthetic, many of his works nonetheless achieved remarkable expressive force.

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Nervi, Pier Luigi 

Born June 21, 1891, in Sondrio, Lombardy. Italian engineer and architect; the first to use ferrocemento (cement sprayed on a fine wire mesh).

From 1908 to 1913, Nervi was a student in the engineering faculty of the University of Bologna. In 1946 he became an instructor at the University of Rome. Nervi often experiments with modern building materials and the structural units for which they are used, seeking to bring out innate possibilities for artistic expression.

Between 1929 and 1932, Nervi built a stadium in Florence, emphasizing its structural elements (reinforced-concrete pillars supporting the stands, spiral staircases, abutments for the cantilever roof) and achieving an expressive spatial composition. From 1935 to 1940, while building aircraft hangars in Orvieto and Orbetello, the architect developed a new system of construction using prefabricated uninterrupted roof spans made from rhomboid reinforced-concrete components.

In 1946, Nervi began to study the possibilities of ferrocemento. He was the first to design a thin-walled span of ferrocemento elements to roof a building. He first used such a span in 1948 and 1949 in his design of an exhibition hall in Turin. The rhythmic patterns of the ceiling and the innovative canted ceiling supports bring out the hidden interaction of forces and form an austere and refined composition.

Nervi’s subsequent architectural work involved the perfecting of ferrocemento shells and a search for various architectural forms and designs. His best works of the 1950’s and 1960’s combine the plastic expressiveness of crude ferrocemento and reinforced-concrete structural elements with a bold and clear design based on precise engineering computations and with a clear and functionally effective spatial organization. Works from this period include the Palazzetto dello Sport in Rome, which has a shallow dome resting on Y-piers; the Palace of Labor in Turin (1961, with architect A. Nervi), which has innovative “umbrella-like” domes on massive pillars; the UNESCO building in Paris (1957, with architects M. L. Breuer and B. Zehr-fuss), whose conference hall has corrugated reinforced-concrete walls and ceiling; and the 32-story Pirelli Building in Milan (1956–60, with architect G. Ponti).

WORKS

Costruire correttamente. Milan, 1955. (Abridged Russian translation,
Stroit‘pravil’no. . . . Moscow, 1956.)
Nuove strutture. Milan, 1963.

REFERENCES

Ivanova, E. K., and R. A. Katsnel’son. P’er Luidzhi Nervi. Moscow, 1968.
Argan, G. C. Pier Luigi Nervi. Milan, 1955.
Huxtable, A. L. Pier Luigi Nervi New York, 1960.

E. K. IVANOVA