Architect and Engineer: A Study in Sibling Rivalry

558 Pages·2007·150.788 MB·English

by  Andrew Saint

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ARCHITECT AND ENGINEER
A Study in Sibling Rivalry
Andrew Saint
YALE lJNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LO NDON
aan lvVrvtj
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part,
in any form (beyond that permitted by sections l 07 and 108 of
the US Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press),
without written permission from the publishers.
Copyright © 2007 Yale University
Designed by Sally Salvesen
Printed in China through \VorldPrint
Library of Congress C~ataloging-in-Publication l)ata
Saint, Andrew.
1\rchitect and engineer: a study in sibling rivalry / ,\ndrcw Saint.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-12443-9 (alk. paper)
Architects and engineers. Title.
1. 1.
NA2;>43.E54S25 2008
720-dc22
2007016892
FRONTISPIECE: detail of Fig. 2fr.2
Cofft>r-da,n in construction for the Pont Royal, Paris.
dnnving by Licvin Cruyl. 1687
CONTENTS
Preface and acknowledgements
VIII
INTRODUCTION
I
1. 'IMPERIAL WORKS AND WORTHY KINGS'
9
France 1660-1789
1. 9
2. Britain 1660-1730
33
3. America 166o--1900
45
2. IRON 65
1. Europe to 1850 65
2. A Railway Interlude 106
3. Britain and France 1850-1900 31
I
4.America 171
3. CONCRETE 207
Styles of Concrete 1800- 1914 207
1.
2. Styles of Partnership 231
4. THE BRIDGE 28
I
1. 'fhe Masonry Bridge 281
2. The Suspension Bridge 1
3 4
3. Propriety and after 346
5. RECONCILIATION 365
1. Britain 365
2. America
394
3. Wide Spans, Natural Structures,
Broad Horizons 4o9
6. A QUESTION OF UPBRINGING
431
1. School Culture 1750-1914 431
2. Shop Culture at Bay: Britain
175er-1914 456
3. Triumph of the 1\rt School 469
CONCLUSION 485
Abbreviations
494
Notes 495
Index 528
Illustration credits 54-2
T\vo contrary thoughts on \vriting about buildings:
The use of history mechanical is of all others the most radical
and fundamental to¼ards natural philosophy; such natural
1
philosophy as shall not varnish the sume of subtle, sublime
or delectable speculation, but such as shall be operative to the
endowment and benefit of man's life.
Francis Bacon, The Advancement oj. Learning
Sind wir vielleicht hier um zu sagen: Haus,
Bri.icke, Brunnen, Tor, Krug, Obstbaum, Fenster,
hochstens: Saule, Turm ... aber zu sagen
oh zu sagen so, wie selber die Dinge niemals
. . . .
1nn1g me1nten zu sc1n.
Rainer 1\-[aria Rilke, JVinth Duino Eleg)'
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
of.
This book is a very long footnote to another I -wrote a generation ago, 'The Image the
Architect (1983). That book came out of the first full course I taught at a school of
architecture, the Architectural Association. By way of anecdote and example, it sought
to offer historical insights about the nature of the profession the students had elected to
JOtn. T\velve years later I \vas appointed to a fu U-time post in the Department of
1\rchitecture at the University of Cambridge. Faced anew, as a non-architect, v.-ith the
challenge of making history pertinent to would-be professionals, I chose a similar method
to explore the tangled thickets of relations between architects and engineers. The course
proved not specially popular. No doubt there were deficiencies in its presentation. But
the main reason, I now sec, was that when you are learning to design, you need to have
your confidence built up, not broken dov.'ll. That is often the effect of studies that treat
architecture as part of a larger whole. Like human kind in general, budding architects
cannot bear very much reality.
Still, friends and colleagues encouraged me in the belief that the topic was worth
pursuing further, not least in vie\v of excitements and controversies about relations
between modern-day architects and engineers. Though much has been written about
this last issue, it is seldom informed by deeper understanding; indeed there has never
been, so far as I am aware, a broad and sustained historical enquiry into the architect
engineer relationship. So I dropped the course but persevered with the book.
The mass of material was overwhelming. I soon realized that I should have to choose,
cut and shape severely. Rather than a continuous narrative or theoretical analysis, the
notion of six discursive essays or case-studies ,vhich could be indi,-idually read or dipped
into according to taste has been basic to the enterprise. The first is about the impact
of military construction and organization, often underestimated. The second and third
tackle the so-called 'new materials' of iron and concrete, since I believe (unfashionably)
that a materialist slant helps to illuminate professional relations in construction. The
fourth takes a building-type, the bridge, in which aesthetics play a part yet the nature of
the architect-engineer relationship as commonly conceived tends to be inverted. The
fifth looks into the seemingly closer relations between architects and engineers in the
making of major projects since about 1930. Finally, the sixth study examines the training
of the two professions. That essay is deliberately, some readers may find provocatively,
placed last. It is often assumed, particularly in continental Europe, that the outlook of
architects and engineers flo,vs from what the French call their formation. I have chosen
to look through the other end of the telescope, and taken institutions, educational and
professional, as the outcome of wider forces.
A reader persistent enough to \-vork right through the chapters n1ay f<:·t>l in v.·ant of a
dear thread. So I have appended a conclusion that tries to dra\v out the pattern I bclie,·e
I have found. It is not a simple pattern, but one exists. Anyone looking for ans\vers
and philosophies is counselled to jump straight from the introduction to the conclusion.
All the essays are about the western tradition in construction. In the main they address
patterns of development since about 1660. ·rht>re are somt· references back to the
Renaissance in Chapter and indeed to thr Ron1ans in Chapter ~- but these an· brief
I
Vlll PREFACE A:-IU AC:KNOWLEDGEME'.'ITS
escapades. In general the book 111ovcs gradually fonvard. 'l'he first two chapters run
from about 1660 to 1goo; the third covers 1750 to 1939; the fifth runs from 1920 to slightly
short of the present, while the other two essays range across the full chronology of the
book. The other unifying principle is that I have consistently investigated just three
countries: Britain, France and the United States. Those three states, I judged, had
enough points of similarity and difference to warrant concentrating my efforts on them.
Nevertheless episodes in other countries are drawn in as and when they seemed helpful:
Italy and Germany feature episodically in this way, as also, less often, do Holland, Russia
and Spain; Belgium and Portugal figure only in footnotes.
Set out like that, the omissions seem flagrant. It is the same ,vith individual architects
and engineers. tvlodcrnists may be disappointed. Why is there so little on ~1ics, and
almost nothing on Nervi or Calatrava? fvly selections have naturally been personal.
This is a long book. It has been said that the trouble with Bruckner's symphonies is not
that they are too long but that they are not long enough, because he never has the space
to develop his gradually un,vinding themes. I have been very aware of that. There
could easily have been more chapters. 1,vo themes I specially regret having to omit:
the distribution of jobs bet\veen architects and engineers in the making, extending and
1naintaining of cities, on which I have confined my ren1arks to a few sentences and
footnotes in Chapter 1; and their respective roles in the design and manufacture of public
structures in series, such as electricity pylons, underground stations, phone-boxes and
street furniture.
Though it has been long and hard work \\Titing this book, it has also been fun. Best
have been the trips to see things, bridges above all. Unavoidably, I have written often
about buildings I have not seen. When I did see things, they invariably appeared in a
fresh light and changed my perceptions. If there is one piece of advice I would tender
to students of architecture and engineering at every level, it is to limit their study of
photographs, drawings and documents, and to go and look.
In gratefully recording debts, I would like to begin by thanking the many scholars and
enthusiasts on to ,vhose backs I have crawled. This book is not the outcon1e of primary
research, in the \\'ay that is understood today. I have done little work in archives but a
lot in libraries, filleting other people ·s discoveries. In such synthetic work covering a
broad field there will be misinterpretations and mistakes, for which I am of course ,vholly
responsible. Of the libraries I have used, I should like to single out the London Library
and the Faculty Library for the l)epartments of 1\rchitecture and History of Art at
Cambridge under :\-laddie Bro,vn; also those of the Institution of Civil Engineers under
the beneficent and learned Mike Chrirnes, and of the RIBA. Little about the history of
the built environment cannot be found in one of those four places.
Among friends \.vho have been outstandingly generous and forbearing to n1e over this
project's long life I should first mention Charlotte Ellis. ~-fart in l\feade and ,\nne-1\·larie
(;hatelet in Paris, and ~losette Broderick in Ne,v York. In London, Robert Thorne has
patiently encouraged and gently tcst.t"d rne. So has Jules Lubbock, ,...-ho read a good
deal of the text. Other readers and chastencrs of chapters or sections included Tim
Benton, Si111on Bradley, Steven Brindle, Nick Bullock, r\lan (~nt,,-~urd, Gillian Darley,
Ed Diestclkamp, Adrian Forty, Elain Han,,ood, ~eilJackson. Sophie Le Bourva, Robin
:\licldlcton. :\Ian Po\\'<'rs. San1 Prict', l)n1itry Sh,·iclko,·sky, Robin Sp<'nce, (;avin Stamp
and l)a,·id Yco,nans. I a,11 specially ~ratefi.11 lo Hubert :\1urray ftir first pointing out
lO
or
me the irnportatHT of' the l'.S Corps Engineers. ·rite upshot \\'as a surrC'al advrnture
to their ard1i,·cs nutsid<" \\'ashing'lo11. ()nc<' I had p1·1H·trated the hunk<'r, I was ,,·ckon1ed
there "·it h ,, annt h and hdpfi1ltH·ss. .-\ bracing disl'ussion \\·it h .-\ntoinc Picon lc•d n1e
to l'bril~ 111y (0111 fusions. :\t an 1·arly stag1· (;iii-~ ( )li,·1-r sugg1·~tl'd th<' suhtitl<". which I
ha,·1· dun11 to throuu·lt thick and thin. .\111'1011,· .\lofsi11 has licl'II a n·g1ilar source of
~ ~ . '
fri1·ncl,ltip a11d support. 11otal>h- onT is:--111-~ lo do "·i1h :\11ll'ric 111 ard1i1cnur;1I l'ducation
and ii,,. rolt- nt' Fr;1nk Lln,d \\-,i~l,t.