ABSTRACT
Beams span space; either singly or in groups they help support floor surfaces to walk on or roofs that provide shelter. Reinforced concrete seems about as solid a material as one could want for building a house. Some concrete walls also contain structural beams that are not visible to the spectator. Outside the building, the wooden beams overhang a gallery supported by square white columns, an assemblage that resembles a classical colonnade but also suggests something of Japanese design. Reinforced concrete was no exception, including for the familiar slab-on-beam hierarchy of typical floor and roof construction. In designing a bridge Robert Maillart began by eliminating all that was nonfunctional; thus everything that remained was an immediate part of the structure. He hid this by improving the reinforced concrete slab until he had turned it into a new structural element. Slabs had hitherto played a neutral or passive part in construction.
