(b Sondrio, 21 June 1891; d Rome, 9 Jan 1979). Italian architect and engineer. He graduated in civil engineering from the University of Bologna in 1913. Before and after serving in World War I, he worked for the Società per Construzione Cimentizia (SCC) in Bologna, subsequently going into practice in Rome, as a partner initially in Nervi and Nebbiosi (1923–32) and then with Nervi and Bartolia, until 1960, when with his three sons, Antonio, Vittorio and Mario, he set up Studio Nervi. He first achieved wide acclaim for the Berta Municipal Stadium (won in competition, 1929; completed 1932) in Florence. It was praised internationally not only as a feat of engineering but also for its design and economy, and the building demonstrated his ability to integrate function with abstract sculptural form, for example in the elegant interlaced helical supports of the external staircases. Between 1935 and 1942, again through winning a competition, Nervi designed a series of aircraft hangars for the Italian air force, the first of which at Orvieto (1938) determined their form: long pointed barrel vaults, constructed on latticed grids of light crossing members, rising from complex triangulated edge-beams. The various sized ribs were prefabricated from reinforced concrete rather than pouring them in place. In these hangars Nervi produced the first version of his diamond-patterned lamella vault. When the German army destroyed the hangars (1944) during their retreat in World War II, most of the joints where the ribs crossed remained intact.

• Nervi, Pier Luigi
  • Concrete, §II, 1(i)(b): After c 1850: Reinforced concrete
  • architecture
    • Canada, §II, 2: Architecture, 1867 and after
    • Italy, §II, 6(iii): Architecture: Neo-Realism & Neo-Liberty to La Tendenza, c 1946–c 1970
    • Space-frame
    • Tension structure, §2: Modern tensile architecture
    • exhibition centres
      • Shell structure, §1: Early examples
      • Turin, §I, 2: History and urban development, 1800 and after
      • Zehrfuss, Bernard
    • office buildings
      • Ponti, Gio
    • railway stations
      • Naples, §I, 5: History and urban development, c 1880 and after
    • sports centres
      • Sports centre
    • stadia
      • Florence, §I, 6: History and urban development, after 1737
      • Stadium, §2: Later history
  • collaboration
    • Belluschi, Pietro
    • France, §II, 5(iii): Architecture, after c 1914: Post-war reconstruction
    • Libera, Adalberto
    • Moretti, Luigi
    • Niemeyer, Oscar, §2: Pampulha to Caracas, 1940–55
    • Paris, §II, 7: Urban development, after 1945
    • Piacentini: (2) Marcello Piacentini
    • Seidler, Harry
    • Skyscraper, §2(ii): History and development, 1945 and after
  • patrons and collectors
    • Italy, §XII, 6: Patronage: Nation state, from 1861
    • Paul VI, Pope
  • pupils
    • Goldsmith, Myron