The art of building passed down from a great designer to the next generation.
Leslie Robertson, engineer of some of the tallest buildings in the world — including the Twin Towers in New York — visited Fondazione Pesenti in Bergamo and met with students from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bergamo.
There could not have been a more fitting setting for the meeting hosted by Fondazione Cav. Lav. Carlo Pesenti Foundation, which has made youth engagement and education the foundation of its mission in support of innovation.
During the visit to the Foundation’s headquarters in Bergamo, the American designer, accompanied by his wife, was welcomed by President Giovanni Giavazzi and Fondazione Pesenti’s leadership. The Foundation is currently engaged in supporting the BergamoScienza festival. Also in attendance were Mario Salvi and Umberto Corrado, representing BergamoScienza, as well as Professors Maria Rosa Ronzoni and Riccardo Riva from the University of Bergamo.
The meeting provided Robertson with the opportunity to visit Italcementi’s laboratories, together with about thirty engineering students who had already attended his lecture at the university earlier that afternoon. It was a chance to experience firsthand the Group’s commitment to ongoing research into new materials and innovative technical solutions for construction professionals.
Lesile Robertson
Leslie Robertson is recognized as one of the greatest structural engineers of the past forty years. With his technical and aesthetic solutions, he laid the foundations for the “Manhattan style” in skyscraper construction.
His works — including the Shanghai World Financial Center (95 floors, 492 meters), Canal Point in Dubai (442 meters), and the “twin towers” of Puerta de Europa in Madrid — soar above the skylines of the world’s major capitals.
During the visit, Italcementi researchers demonstrated how TX Active® works through several practical demonstrations. Last year, this product was listed among the 70 most innovative ideas by the New York Times — in the U.S., no less. Engineer Robertson expressed great interest in the properties of this “smog-eating cement,” seeing it as an ideal material for the buildings of the future.
The conference
On Saturday, October 11, at 5:00 p.m. at the Giovanni XXIII Congress Center in Bergamo, Leslie Robertson will give a lecture as part of the BergamoScienza festival, titled “Reaching Ever Higher. How to Build Skyscrapers”, sponsored by Fondazione Cav. Lav. Carlo Pesenti.