Revealing the Invisible. The Scientification of Architectural Forms in Postwar Italy

In the aftermath of World War II novel scientific tools start to influence the architectural culture in Italy. These tools originate from analytical methods in structural engineering and are mainly based on the use of physical models. Instead of the primary purpose for the verification of structures by the visualization of stress fields, the physical model studies are applied in the design process as source for forms. This innovative employment of engineering tools, ranging from the photoelasticity method to experiments with soap film models, affects widely the emblematic architecture of the postwar period. During the 1930s, the Italian scientist Arturo Danusso (1880-1968) started to research on the field of photoelastic stress analysis. This optical technique enabled to display visually the stress paths in a component under load: Physical models made of transparent material were irradiated by polarized light, the gradation of different colour fringes allowed to depict the stress trajectories. Dunusso’s scholar Pier Luigi Nervi (1891-1979) was one of the first, who applied such analytic methods as a design tool for the construction of the Wool Factory Gatti in Rome (1951). What originally displayed a graphical representation from the stress analysis, was in this case directly translated into an architectural motive. The rips illustrated the trajectories of the stress field of the slab. This structural pattern provided an expressive reference for the postwar architecture in Italy and abroad. While Nervi’s explorations revealed the manifold potential of such analytic techniques to articulate the architectural space, Sergio Musmeci (1926-1981) followed a similar approach with his explorations for novel structural forms. His method was related to the use of several innovative tools, such as soap film models. In these experiments a simple metal wire defined the boundary conditions, while the soap film allowed to derive a self-generated surface. The resulting minimal surface, in which the stresses can distribute equally, was directly translated by Musmeci into a novel architectural form. This early example of form-finding was transferred into practice with the construction of the Basento Bridge in Potenza (1967-76). In a larger context, the attempts of protagonists like Danusso, Nervi and Musmeci were part of an international movement of thought. The theoretical and cultural milieu can be framed by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s famous treaty on On Growth and Form (1917) and the exhibition The New Landscape in Art and Science at MIT (1956), curated by Gyorgy Kepes. By employing the inherent potential of engineering tools to reveal the invisible stresses of component under load, structural engineers addressed exemplarily the modernistic ideal of a reciprocal dependency between analytic sciences and creative processes.