Progettisti e affini

Silvano Zorzi

Silvano Zorzi

(July 2, 1921 – March 13, 1994)
He was an Italian engineer and one of the most respected bridge designers of the twentieth century.
Graduating in 1945 in Construction Engineering at the École Polytechnique in Lausanne and in civil hydraulic engineering at the Engineering Faculty of the University of Padua, he is the owner since 1950 of a professional studio specializing in reinforced concrete constructions.
In 1961 he founded the IN.CO. (Consultant Engineers) with offices in Milan, Venice and Rome, specialized in design and construction supervision for civil and industrial works. His professional activity is focused on the design of bridges and viaducts, canals and tunnels, maritime works (piers and basins), industrial and sports structures.
In 1982 he was appointed member of the Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts of Udine. In the 1960s he was among the first in Italy to tackle the cantilever construction system in the design of bridges and viaducts; in industrial, maritime and plant engineering products, it seeks typological solutions through the design of industrially produced construction components. All his production stems from the awareness that the engineering artefacts are permanent landscape architectures and therefore seeks their structural, constructive and figurative lightness. He has collaborated with architects of the caliber of Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini and Vittorio Gregotti.
During 1995 he was awarded the gold medal in memory of the AICAP as “heartfelt recognition for his extraordinary figure as a scholar and designer who made many contributions to the development of construction engineering”.

Source: Wikipedia

Walkway for the cement plant “Italcementi” – Rezzato-Mazzano (Brescia), 1963
The walkway serves as a link between the “Italcementi” cement plant and the primary marl crushing plant, it is intended both to support the conveyor belt and to allow pedestrian passage.
The box-like walkway was cast in high-strength white concrete, the stacks in high-strength common concrete. It was the first time in Italy that white cement was used in pre-stressed reinforced concrete structures on large spans.
The prestressing was applied gradually: a first stringing of the cables at 33 kilograms per square centimeter was performed 3 days after casting, in order to give the concrete a modest compression sufficient to avoid any cracking due to shrinkage; a second prestressing was applied to 14 days of seasoning of the castings, so as to allow the stripping and recovery of the centrings. The total prestressing was finally applied to 28 days of casting seasoning.

Source: Silvano Zorzi – Engineer 1950-1990 edited by Angelo Villa