Remo Calzona

Remo Calzona was born on 19 January 1939 in Catanzaro, Calabria. He graduated in civil engineering from the University of Rome La Sapienza in July 1964, with Carlo Cestelli Guidi as thesis adviser. His thesis, later published, treated membrane analysis of double-curvature shells with a hyperbolic paraboloid middle surface.

Calzona taught construction engineering at La Sapienza from soon after graduation and became a full professor in 1978. His practice included Pontine elevated tanks (1967-1969), the Chiamarona viaduct (1969), brewery and silo works for Itala Pilsen and Birra Peroni, the Val di Chiana viaduct, the Vasto sports hall dome (1979-1980), railway and road bridges in Friuli and Liguria, Tiber and Po crossings, Naples business-district elevated structures, the Caivano bridge on the Rome to Naples high-speed line, and cable-stayed work on the Adige. From 1985 he advised the Italian state and ANAS on the Strait of Messina bridge for about twelve years and later wrote critically about the project. In 1997 he joined the international Pisa tower commission. He published widely, including a Hoepli reinforced-concrete handbook with Cestelli Guidi and later books on the Messina bridge and earthquakes.

Though based in Rome for his university and consulting career, Calzona kept ties to Calabria. L'Eco del Sud noted his design role on the Tirreno to Ionio fast road linking Rosarno to Marina di Gioiosa Ionica and his contributions as a newspaper columnist on ports and advanced engineering. He remained a public commentator on bridge safety into later life, including television appearances after the Genoa Morandi bridge collapse.

Remo Calzona died in Rome on 25 September 2026 at the age of 87. L'Eco del Sud announced the death on the same day, describing him as a former La Sapienza professor of construction engineering and one of Italy's leading designers. Italian Wikipedia recorded Catanzaro as his birthplace and Rome as the place of death. No public cause of death was given in the initial notices.

Calzona is remembered as a Sapienza construction professor, designer of major Italian bridges and industrial shells, adviser on the Messina Strait crossing, and member of the Pisa tower stabilization commission. His books and televised comments after Genoa kept structural safety in public debate. Colleagues and regional press in Calabria marked his death as the loss of a designer who had linked university research to built infrastructure.