The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy

by David P. Billington, Jameson W. Doig (Contribution by)

This handsomely designed book brings together for the first time the outstanding work of four Swiss engineers and their teachers who form the most impressive group of structural artists in the twentieth Wilhelm Ritter (1847–1906), Robert Maillart (1872–1940), Othmar Ammann (1879–1965), Pierre Lardy (1902–1956), Heinz Isler (b. 1926), and Christian Menn (b. 1927).

David P. Billington, who has written widely on these engineers, argues that it is important to consider them as artists, for aesthetics played a major role in their design philosophy. He explains that their shared approach to design was developed while they attended the Federal Technological Institute in Maillart and Amman studied with Ritter there, and Isler and Menn studied under Lardy. Billington focuses on the engineers’ artistic approach to bridge design and construction, and he discusses their impressive individual contributions to structural engineering.

Generously illustrated, this book features many newly commissioned photographs, including images of important new structures such as the Charles River Bridge in Boston, completed by Menn in 2002.

212 pages, Hardcover

First published March 11, 2003

About the author

A longtime professor of engineering at Princeton University, David P. Billington is the author of numerous books dealing with construction and design, as well as with profiles of major structural engineers. This last-named interest inspired several books on the works of the Swiss engineer Robert Maillart, including the 1990 title, Robert Maillart and the Art of Reinforced Concrete. Maillart, who lived from 1872 to 1940, was a pioneer in the expressive uses of reinforced concrete in construction and design. Writing in Technology Review, Thomas Frick felt that Billington's book "allows the reader to grasp the structural basis of Maillart's design decisions." Billington's interest in Maillart led to his cowriting the 2003 title The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy, which serves as an overview to the work not only of Maillart, but also of such designers and engineers as Christian Menn and Othmar Hermann Ammann.