Autobiografia della ricerca

Autobiografia della ricerca
The essay traces the contents and the role that my book, awarded with
a mention at the 2010 Edoardo Benvenuto International Prize, had in my
academic career as a researcher and professor of history of contemporary
architecture in the faculties of Engineering and Architecture in Italy. The
research investigated in the volume focuses on the different construction
methods recurring in prestressed works, their static functioning and the
design outcomes that characterize some masterpieces of construction in
Italy. The story begins with the birth of prestressed reinforced concrete
and follows its diffusion in Italy, without submitting to the chronological
sequence, but giving voice and figure to the technical and expressive potential
that this new material has offered to the construction world.
At the basis of this study is my doctoral research dedicated to engineer
Riccardo Morandi (1902-1989): the experiments and works in prestressed
reinforced concrete of the fifties, which deals with pioneering research on
the construction of Italian experimental works of a large engineer, protagonist
of the history of architecture and the history of engineering, designer
of some of the most innovative works of the twentieth century.