From Treviso, the son of Antonio Berlese, Augusto Berlese graduated university with an engineering degree. In 1921, he built the buildings of the Padua Trade Fair, Italy's first, founded in June 1919. In 1922, Attilio Sacerdoti commissioned him to design Palazzo Sacerdoti, one of the most unique buildings in Padua’s Prato della Valle. With eclectic windows, balconies and capitals, the structure and its details evoke different architectural styles (art nouveau, romantic, Byzantine), tending towards variety rather than a unified style.

In Ferrara, Berlese worked with the engineer and architect Ferdinando Forlati to design Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali (the Assicurazioni Generali Building).