Robert Maillart’s innovative views in using concrete
(2022) concrete - Conservation Challenges — ISBN: [978-87-92700-38-4], 42-59, published
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- Robert Maillart’s innovative views concerning the use of concrete come within the scope of the history of structures, structural materials and concrete as a material of structure. It will lead us far beyond these issues. At the end, point of view expressed in this paper will remain that of a structural designer when examining these subjects. When preparing this reflection, I realise that there is no straightforward answer to the question: “What is in fact Maillart’s real innovation considering all the contributions he made to the art of engineering?” Putting forward these different aspects as an introduction seems to be a more relevant way of answering the question taking our contemporary context into account. Consequently the first part of this text will be a general presentation. After that, we will have to make a detour to what I – and others – consider will be the most revolutionary aspects of Maillart’s practice fully comprehensible. So starting from the historical development of (reinforced) concrete as a structural material, we will move to the contemporary context to figure out how the intrinsic structural complexity of concrete is managed today. We will see that some difficulties emerge from the behaviour of concrete in relation to the classic theories of mechanics. If some modern theories find an answer to the problem it will become obvious that Maillart had already found a convincing way of dealing with these difficulties. We will then return to Maillart ’s work to answer the question through the status he was to give concrete when it came to structural design and the methods he used to achieve his objectives. I hope this will lead us to consider Maillart ’s approach as one the most visionary ever devised.
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Zastavni, D. (2022). Robert Maillart’s innovative views in using concrete. In Jadwiga Urbanik, Ola Wedebrunn (ed.), concrete - Conservation Challenges (pp. 42-59). The architectural Publisher B / Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/167143