Chianciano Thermal Bath. キアンチャーノの温泉施設

The thermal complex built in 1952 in Chianciano, Tuscany, by the Nervi & Bartoli construction company represents a landmark in the use of prefabricated ferrocement elements to create architecturally expressive spaces. Designed by Pier Luigi Nervi from an initial plan by Mario Loreti and Mario Marchi, the project includes the entrance pavilion, the “waters’ room,” and an elliptical restaurant linked by a covered walkway. The “waters’ room” features an innovative waved vault and a perforated ferrocement lighting frieze that combines structural and decorative functions. The restaurant, praised by critic George Everard Kidder Smith as one of Nervi’s finest works, is covered by an ellipsoidal ferrocement dome that seems to float thanks to a ring of continuous windows. The complex, still in use today, remains an outstanding example of Nervi’s poetic engineering and material experimentation.