Robert Maillart

Robert Maillart (1872-1940) was a Swiss civil engineer who transformed structural design through his innovative use of reinforced concrete. He pioneered the three hinged arch and the deck stiffened arch for bridges, and developed the beamless floor slab and mushroom ceiling system for industrial buildings. His best known works are the Salginatobel Bridge of 1929-1930 and the Schwandbach Bridge of 1933, which changed the aesthetics and engineering of bridge construction; the Salginatobel Bridge was named an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1991 and was voted the most beautiful bridge of the century by the British journal Bridge Design and Engineering in 2001. Maillart favored intuitive understanding and practical testing over heavy mathematical theory, which let him develop unconventional forms that used material efficiently while producing structures many consider beautiful. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/