- About the Lecture
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About the Lecture
Bridges serve a utilitarian purpose, but they should also please the eye. David P. Billington celebrates an influential group of Swiss structural engineers who forged a tradition of bridge-building in the 20th century that united form and function with unprecedented grace. His lecture describes the offerings of an exhibit at the MIT Museum that showcases the works of Robert Maillart (1872-1940), Othmar Ammann (1879-1965), Heinz Isler (b. 1926), and Christian Menn (b. 1927). These architects, inspired by masterful teachers of the Zurich Federal Institute of Technology, first honed their exacting designs in the rugged mountains of Switzerland, and then branched out to the rest of the world. Billington describes Maillart’s iconic, 1930 Salginatobel Bridge, high in the Alps, which improves on old Roman bridge designs using a 3-hinged arch and reinforced concrete. He toasts Ammann’s Verrazzano Narrows and George Washington Bridges as well as Menn’s very recent Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston, the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world. Billington believes these are structures that will “outlast all our lives, enrich the environment and not desecrate it.”Related Videos
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- About the Speaker
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About the Speaker
David P. Billington
Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor of Engineering
Princeton UniversityDavid P. Billington is Director of the Program of Architecture and Engineering at Princeton University. He is well-known at Princeton for connecting engineering to other disciplines within the University -- to the humanities, art, science and politics. Billington has taught perhaps 5,000 Princeton undergraduates since joining the faculty in 1960. He specializes in structural analysis and design with an emphasis on concrete structures, bridge design, thin shell concrete structures, and the history and aesthetics of structures as an art form.
Billington's most recent publication is Power, Speed and Form -- Engineers and the Making of the Twentieth Century (with David P. Billington, Jr; Princeton 2006). He has written several books on Robert Maillart’s work as well as on other aspects of structural engineering.
Billington was a Fulbright Fellow, and won the 1992 George Winter Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has consulted for the State of Maryland on bridge design and for the State of New Jersey on highway accidents. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineering, among other professional affiliations. He has taught at Princeton since 1960. - About the Host
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About the Host
MIT Museum
Cutting-edge technologies, amazing holograms, and the beauty of Harold Edgerton's strobe photography entertain, educate, and enlighten at the MIT Museum. Robotics, underwater exploration, kinetic sculptures, and the variety of interactive programs and historic collections attract visitors and researchers from around the world. This unique museum recently opened the Mark Epstein Innovation Gallery featuring some of the latest work of selected research groups at MIT.
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The information on this page was accurate as of the day the video was added to MIT World. This video was added to MIT World on October 27, 2004.
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The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy
- David P. Billington
- September 17, 2004
- Running Time: 1:15:22
