ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book gives a broad overview of the cultural, commercial, economic, academic, legislative and institutional spheres that reflected this paradigm shift in Portugal. It reviews successive steps in Britain’s dissemination of Joseph Aspdin’s 1824 Portland cement patent and the efforts made to catch up with the reinforced concrete that had had its first commercial success in France and was the subject of theoretical studies and codification in Germany. The book begins by underlining the importance of Francois Cointereaux’s studies at the end of the 18th century in revisiting the ancient structura caementicia and looking to the creation of a new constructive system of concrete moulding by optimizing the millenary process of pise. It explores the activity of the German-born engineer and contractor Rodolfo Stoelcker and his construction company founded in Italy in 1913, from that year up until the post-war period.
