Drawing extensively on examples from his own career, Pier Luigi Nervi stated the advantages of prefabrication in reinforced concrete construction stressed again a recurrent theme of his Charles Eliot Norton lectures: the for close collaboration between designer, structural engineer, and con- from start to finish of an architectural project.

If these three do not collaborate more closely," Nervi told his Lowell LecHall audience, "many fine projects will remain only pieces of paper. And is nothing more melancholy than projects which are no more than paper." speaking chiefly from slides of many of his major works, Nervi demonstrated the technical innovation of prefabrication had been crucial in winning con- for contracts among building firms. "In these cases," Nervi noted, "the for maximum economy becomes more than ever stimulating because, obviously, solutions not economically suitable have little probability of being built, no how good the projects are."

Nervi main economic advantage of preparation, Nervi explained, is the elimination of the wood formwork previously to reinforced concrete. Further construction with prefabricated element is faster, Nervi noted. They can immediately mass-produced while the nations and vertical supports are and if accompanied "with exactness in layout and workman- can be quickly and easily erected site.

Nervi recounted how scarcity of steel the obstacles to importing wood in the late 'thirties led him to very of prefabrication for Italian hangars he built in 1939. When Germans destroyed the hangars at of the war, they demonstrated strength of the interlocking elements, rubble revealed that not a single a steel-rod joints had been broken.

speed with which prefabricated can be constructed, Nervi maintained, was crucial for winning the con- for the two vast vaults of the Exhibition Hall, each of which to be ready for automobile exhibition in a short time.

Finally, Nervi argued that by doing with the restictions of the traditional formwork, prefabrication permits richness of form, delicate refine- and the possibility of creating rhythms produced by the repeti- of equal elements." Static law defines basic structural form, but that the architect is free to express tastes.

With prefabrication in particular and architecture generally, Nervi stressed, designer must have "considerable gained through direct con- and familiarity with the problems of contraction."