Design Engineer

Robert Maillart from Berne created innovative and groundbreaking structures that made him one of the most important civil engineers of his time. He achieved an international breakthrough with the development of the beamless flat slab (mushroom ceiling). His successful company built structures in Spain, France, Italy, Finland, Egypt and Russia, where he was caught by the outbreak of the First World War while constructing a large factory. In 1918, after the Russian Revolution, a destitute Maillart returned to Switzerland. Here he began a new career as a projecting design engineer with an office in Geneva and branch offices in Berne and Zurich. The three-hinged hollow-box girder and the braced tied arch, which he had developed, stand out prominently in the history of structural engineering.