Robert Maillart: Builder, Designer, and Artist

by David P. Billington

Overview

This comprehensive biography traces the life and works of Robert Maillart, one of the most important engineers and designers of the twentieth century. His career developed around a central issue of modern technological society: the debate between two antithetical views of engineering opposing applied science, which relied on general mathematical theories for understanding structures against design, which Maillart championed. Maillart considered structures not merely works of utility but also as works of art. As utilitarian objects, he created a series of innovations of lasting significance. Aesthetically, Maillart shaped his three innovations in concrete to create surprising and often stunning new forms. Providing an analysis of these innovations, this biography also connects Maillart's aesthetic ideas with the private and professional context in which he worked.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521057424
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/24/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	8.27(w) x 10.98(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

1. Student and designer: 1872–1901; 2. Designer and builder: 1902–1909; 3. Builder and millionaire: 1909–1914; 4. War and revolution: 1914–1919; 5. Scholar and designer: 1920–1927; 6. Solitary designer: 1927–1932; 7. Images from within: 1932–1934; 8. The great debate: 1934–1938; 9. Honored at last: 1938–1940; Notes.