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 (June 21, 1891 - January 9, 1979) was an Italian engineer.

He studied at the
University of Bologna and qualified in 1913. Dr. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at
Rome University from 1946-61. He is renowned for his brilliance as a structural engineer and an
architect, and for his novel use of reinforced concrete.

 
Pier Luigi Nervi was born in Sondrio and attended the Civil Engineering School of Bologna,
from which he graduated in 1913. After graduation, Nervi joined the Society for Concrete
Construction. Nervi spent several years in the Italian army during World War I from 1915±1918,
when he served in the Corps of Engineering. His formal education was quite similar to that
experienced by today's civil engineering student in Italy.

From 1961-1962 Nervi was the Norton professor at Harvard University.

  
 

 



Nervi in front of the Sports Palace in Rome (1960)

Nervi began practicing civil engineering after 1923, and built several airplane hangars amongst
his contracts. During 1940s he developed ideas for a reinforced concrete which helped in the
rebuilding of many buildings and factories throughout Western Europe, and even designed and
created a boat hull that was made of reinforced concrete as a promotion for the Italian
government.

Nervi also stressed that intuition should be used as much as mathematics in design, especially
with thin shelled structures. He borrowed from both Roman and Renaissance architecture to
create aesthetically pleasing structures, yet applied structural aspects such as ribbing and vaulting
often based on nature. This was to improve the structural strength and eliminate the need for
columns. He succeeded in turning engineering into an art by taking simple geometry and using
sophisticated prefabrication to find direct design solutions in his buildings.


  

 


Pier Luigi Nervi was educated and practised as a ‘

‘ (translated as "building
engineer") - in Italy, at the time (and to a lesser degree also today), a building engineer might
also be considered an architect. After 1932, his aesthetically pleasing designs were used for
major projects. This was due to the booming number of construction projects at the time which
used concrete and steel in Europe and the architecture aspect took a step back to the potential of
engineering. Nervi successfully made reinforced concrete the main structural material of the day.
Nervi expounded his ideas on building in four books (see below) and many learned papers.


 




Îost of his built structures are in his native Italy, but he also worked on projects abroad. Nervi's
first project in the United States was the George Washington Bridge Bus Station. He designed
the roof which consists of triangle pieces which were cast in place. This building is still used
today by over 700 buses and their passengers.






The Tour de la Bourse in Îontreal (1964)

 2 Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence (1931)
2 Exhibition Building, Turin, Italy (1949).
2 UNESCO headquarters, Paris (1950) (collaborating with Îarcel Breuer and Bernard
Zehrfuss)
2 The Pirelli Tower, Îilan (1950) (collaborating with Gio Ponti)
2 Palazzo dello sport EUR (now PalaLottomatica), Rome (1956)
2 Palazzetto dello sport, Rome (1958)
2 Stadio Flaminio, Rome (1957)
2 Palazzo del Lavoro, Turin (1961)
2 Palazzetto dello sport, Turin (1961)
2 Sacro Cuore (Bell Tower), Firenze (1962)
2 Paper Îill, Îantua, Italy (1962)
2 George Washington Bridge Bus Station, New York City (1963)
2 Tour de la Bourse, Îontreal (1964) (collaborating with Luigi Îoretti)
2 Field House at Dartmouth College
2 Thompson Arena at Dartmouth College (1973±74)
2 Cathedral of Saint Îary of the Assumption, San Francisco, California (1967)
(collaborating with Pietro Belluschi)
2 Paul VI Audience Hall, Vatican City (1971)
2 Australian Embassy, Paris (1973) Consulting engineer
2 Good Hope Centre, Cape Town (1976) by Studio Nervi, an exhibition hall and
conference centre, with the exhibition hall comprising an arch with tie-beam on each of
the four vertical facades and two diagonal arches supporting two intersecting barrel-like
roofs which in turn were constructed from pre-cast concrete triangular coffers with in-situ
concrete beams on the edges.
2 Norfolk Scope, Norfolk, VA (1971)

ã
Pier Luigi Nervi was awarded Gold Îedals by the Institution of Structural Engineers, the AIA,
RIBA and the Académie d'architecture.

He was also awarded the Frank P. Brown Îedal of The Franklin Institute in 1957.
ð
  (February 6, 1872 - April 5, 1940) was a Swiss civil engineer who revolutionized the use
of structural reinforced concrete with such designs as the three-hinged arch and the deck-stiffened arch
for bridges, and the beamless floor slab and mushroom ceiling for industrial buildings. His completed
Salginatobel (1929ʹ1930) and Schwandbach (1933) bridges changed the aesthetics and engineering of
bridge construction dramatically and influenced decades of architects and engineers after him. In 1991
the Salginatobel Bridge was declared an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the
American Society of Civil Engineers

BIOGRAPHY

ð
 

(b. Berne, Switzerland 1872; d. 1940)

Robert Îaillart was born in Berne, Switzerland in 1872. After he received his civil engineering
degree from the Federal Polytechnical Institute in Zurich in 1894, he worked for a series of
Swiss engineers. He established his own design-construction firm in 1902. He moved the firm to
Russia in 1912 but it collapsed during the Russian Revolution in 1917. Upon his return to
Switzerland, Îaillart worked with Lucien Îeisser and Ernst Stettler as a consulting engineer.

Between 1910 and 1912 Îaillart entered five major bridge competitions. Although juries usually
preferred the more conventional bridges to his, Îaillart actually built three bridges based on the
quality and competitive pricing of his works. Immediately following this period, he taught for
several years as a private teacher at the Zurich Federal Polytechnical Institute.

Primarily an engineer, Îaillart gained notoriety through his innovative bridge designs. Îaillart
utilized the structural strength and expressive potential of reinforced concrete to generate a
modern form for his bridges. To avoid structural beams and arches, he established a structural
form based on both flat and curved concrete slabs reinforced with steel.

Using very simple construction concepts, Îaillart produced some of the most beautiful
structures of the twentieth century. Îaillart's major new forms, the open three-hinged, hollow-
box arch, the mushroom slab, and the deck-stiffened arch illustrate at least three of the
fundamentally radical ideas he expressed about twentieth-century structures.