The union between art, science and craft was championed in Pier Luigi Nervi’s prolific career. Indeed, his works must be read using what himself termed as the “vocabulary of architectural speech”: materials, functional needs, statics, construction technology and economic efficiency. This research centres its attention on the columns in Nervi’s buildings, exploring how the founding principles of structural architecture have been applied to these elements. The aim is to complement the available literature that celebrates Nervi’s domes and thin-shell structures by investigating the solutions adopted for their supporting members.

The study analyses a number of representative projects whose column geometries are modeled through 3D parametric software. This process of geometrical analysis, underpinned by research of direct and indirect archive data, unravels distinctive features and supports structural design speculations. Investigation of project records and photographs also highlights the construction technologies adopted.