Departures of note

Upon completion of the Fiat Tagliero Building in Asmara in 1938, workers reportedly refused to remove the scaffolding supporting its airplane-like cantilevered wings, fearing the structure would collapse. Giuseppe Pettazzi, the engineer who designed the building, is said to have pointed a gun at the workers, forcing them to take down the temporary supports. The wings remained standing, as he had calculated.

Born on May 3, 1907, Pettazzi was an Italian civil engineer associated with the Art Deco and Futurist movements. During the 1930s, he designed and built numerous buildings in the Italian colony of Eritrea, including the Fiat Tagliero Building, which an observer later described as 'probably the world's most beautiful petrol station, and also one of the world's supreme examples of Futurism.' His work in Asmara blended modernist aesthetics with engineering ambition.

Pettazzi died on October 8, 2001. His legacy rests on structures that merged the Futurist fascination with speed and aviation into reinforced concrete, and on a story, since repeated, of an engineer’s confidence held at gunpoint.