Pier Luigi Nervi. Architecture as Challenge
25 January sees the opening of the Manifattura Tabacchi exhibition in Florence
The retrospective exhibition dedicated to one of the most famous engineers and designers of the last century, in Italy and worldwide, stops in Florence at Manifattura Tabacchi.
The exhibition PIER LUIGI NERVI Architecture as a Challenge, is part of an important travelling exhibition cycle. Thirty years after Pier Luigi Nervi's death, the exhibition tells the story of his work and his personality, which have lost nothing of their non-standard modernity.
PIER LUIGI NERVI Architettura come Sfida Manifattura Tabacchi Firenze ph. Massimo Sestrini
A designer and builder at the same time, Nervi emerges as a man of culture of his time and reveals himself to have been not only an architect and engineer, but also a poet-architect and artist, an incredible innovator and shrewd impresario, a man of culture of his time in constant search of an absolute mastery of the technical means to infuse Beauty into the built environment.
Within the organisation he developed, which included on one side the studio and on the other the construction company, the great Italian craftsmanship tradition was put at the service of prefabrication and monumental dimensions.
PIER LUIGI NERVI Architettura come Sfida Manifattura Tabacchi Firenze ph. Massimo Sestini
The constant research carried out by Nervi during his long activity, with the aim of making architecture and engineering achieve artistic values equal to those of other arts, is evident from the models and documentation presented in this exhibition which, thanks to the heritage made available by the P.L. Nervi Association, promotes in Florence the cultural importance that he had in the history of our country.
The Pier Luigi Nervi Architettura come Sfida exhibition is made up of 12 sections, each of which focuses on an iconic work of the engineer's creativity in addition to the Manifattura Tabacchi model in Florence. The exhibition has chosen to present Pier Luigi Nervi through the main iconic works. Each of them presents an aspect of his genius as a designer and builder, and all of them still bear witness to his essence: the beauty of form and the brilliant implementation of the structural economy of materials.
PIER LUIGI NERVI Architettura come Sfida Manifattura Tabacchi Firenze ph. Massimo Sestrini
The exhibition includes the project for the transformation of the Manifattura Tabacchi in Florence, built between 1933 and 1940 to the design of the Monopoly technicians, which presents architectural lines and structures of such modernity and elegance that they have led to the hypothesis of the hand of Pier Luigi Nervi.
Models, copies of the original drawings, a wide range of photographs of construction sites and current photographs illustrate, chapter by chapter, Nervi's entire creative path and guide visitors to the exploration of the main areas of his activity: from the Augustan Cinema-Theatre in Naples, one of his most beloved works; to the Unesco headquarters in Paris or the Papal Audience Hall in the Vatican and the Stock Exchange Tower in Montreal, to arrive at his last project, the Italian Embassy in Brasilia, conceived by Nervi and his son Antonio in 1969 and testimony to the international activity of the Nervi studio.