Pier Luigi Nervi

Pier Luigi Nervi (1891-1979), Italian architect and engineer, whose technical innovations, particularly in the use of reinforced concrete, made possible aesthetically pleasing solutions to difficult structural problems.

Born June 21, 1891, in Sondrio, Italy, Nervi studied at the Civic Engineering School in Bologna and established his own firm in 1920. His first major commission, the Giovanni Berta Stadium (1932), in Florence, features cantilevered beams and a daringly exposed concrete structure. For his aeroplane hangars for the Italian air force (1936-1941; destroyed), he used reinforced concrete to cover enormous spans with a light but strong latticework. He considered himself primarily an engineer and technician, not an architect, and he strove primarily for “strength through form”. He maintained that the strong aesthetic appeal of his buildings was simply a by-product of their structural correctness. His introduction of a versatile new type of reinforced concrete—layers of fine steel mesh sprayed with cement mortar—made possible one of his masterpieces, the Turin Exposition Hall (1949), in which the approximately 76-m (250-ft) corrugated lattice roof (only about 5 cm/2 in thick) creates an immense interior space as dramatic as a cathedral.

In his later career he designed buildings in Europe, the United States, and South America, as well as in Italy. The best known and most influential is probably his Palazetto dello Sport (Small Sports Stadium, 1960; Rome). Encircled by Y-shaped supports and topped by a shallow scalloped concrete dome, this building has become a paradigm of the 20th-century sports arena. Nervi died January 9, 1979, in Rome.