The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy

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.