Attilio Giacomo Muggia

Attilio Giacomo Muggia (Venice, 2 April 1861 – Bologna, 18 February 1936) was an Italian engineer and architect.

Biography He was the Italian pioneer of reinforced concrete calculus of which he held the exclusive rights.

He held the chair of technical architecture at the Bologna School of Engineering from 1912 to 1935.

In Bologna, he built Villa Gina in 1900, the first building for civilian use with reinforced concrete floors and with avant-garde solutions for the time, such as the use of asphalt to waterproof the terraces or the original steel plate shutters on the windows.

From 1905 to 1925 he was general technical director of the Cement Construction Company with offices in Bologna and Florence.

In 1926 he played an important role in the design of the Marchino Cement Factory in Prato built by architect Leone Poggi.

Attilio Muggia died in Bologna in 1936. He is buried in the Israelite camp of the Certosa di Bologna.

The city of Bologna named a street after him in the vicinity of the Park of Montagnola, Bologna of which, with Tito Azzolini (1837–1907), he was the architect of the monumental staircase.

A square was dedicated to him in Rome.

Life and career

Muggia was born in Venice to a Jewish family.

One of his most notable projects was the monumental staircase in the Park of Montagnola, Bologna designed in collaboration with Tito Azzolini and inaugurated in 1896.

Muggia was a pioneer in Italy of the use of reinforced concrete. In 1900, he designed Villa Gini in Borgo Panigale which was the first civil building in Italy to use reinforced conrete. He was responsible for the construction of the Synagogue of Bologna.

From 1905 to 1925, he was general technical director of the Società Costruzioni Cementizie with offices in Bologna and Florence.

He held the chair of technical architecture at the Bologna engineering school from 1912 to 1935.

He died in 1936 and is buried in the Jewish section of Certosa di Bologna monumental cemetery in Bologna.