Dagoberto Ortensi

Italian architect Dagoberto Ortensi was one of the three architects who created the Velodromo Olimpico for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Roma. The others were Cesare Lingini und Silvano Ricci. Ortensi received an Honorable Mention for his work Model for “Sports Centre and Olympic Village for the Games in 1956” at the 1948 London Olympics in the Art Competitions in the category Architecture, Architectural Designs.

Ortensi graduated in 1925 in Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino. During the 1930s he was one of the most prolific protagonists of architecture and participated in the most important national competitions (including the competition for the building of the Littorio in Roma, for the design of the Via Roma in Torino, and for the European palace of Italian civilization). In 1932 he designed the Stadium Mussolini in Torino (which he entered for the 1932 Olympics) and was invited by the City of Milano to carry out several projects for the construction of “minimal houses.” In May 1942, he obtained a professorship at the University in Roma for technical architecture, while during World War II he designed sports facilities throughout Italy. His main work was the cycling stadium built for the 1960 Olympics. The following year he was appointed professor of drawing at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of L’Aquila.