Pier Luigi Nervi
| Pier Luigi Nervi | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
June 21, 1891 Sondrio, Italy |
| Died | January 9, 1979 (aged 87) |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Education | University of Bologna |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Structural engineer |
| Institutions |
Society for Concrete Construction Institution of Structural Engineers |
| Projects |
Olympic Stadium in Rome (1960) UNESCO headquarters in Paris (1950) Hangar in Orvieto (1935) |
| Awards |
IStructE Gold Medal Wilhelm Exner Medal (1957) AIA Gold Medal (1964) |
Pier Luigi Nervi (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 widely known as a structural engineer and an architect, and for his innovative 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 began practicing civil engineering after 1923, and built several airplane hangars amongst his contracts. During the 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 shell structures. He borrowed from both Roman and Renaissance architecture while applying ribbing and vaulting to improve strength and eliminate columns. He combined simple geometry and prefabrication to innovate design solutions.
Pier Luigi Nervi was educated and practised as a ingegnere edile (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.
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