Robert Maillart and the Art of Reinforced Concrete

Rating:
Summary: the art of good engineering
Review: Too many people (and too many engineers) fail to understand that great engineering is about creation and imagination. Robert Maillart was first and foremost a great engineer, but he was also a wonderful artist.

This book (in English and German) traces his works from 1905 to his death (about 1940). Billington shows how Maillart takes his designs, step by step, from the historical stone arch design to the modern use of reinforced concrete. His bridges are wonderfully designed to be functional as well as perfectly suited to their placement in the environment.

Because of their locations deep in the Swiss countryside, they tend to be difficult to view and photograph. But Billington includes excellent photographs (both historic and contemporary).

The best part about the book is the way Billington shows that the later works are built upon the concepts explored in the earlier works. There are some discussions of engineering concepts, but this is really a book about art and aesthetics, not about stress and strain. As Maillart proved, you can provide gorgeous aesthetics and still create structures that serve a useful purpose for 100 years (and still going strong).

I wish the chapter about his influence on later engineers had been more developed. I also wish there could have been more discussion of the economics involved, perhaps a detailed exploration of one of the design competitions. (Maillart had to not only build the bridges, but he also had to be the low-bidder!)