Maillart's Bridges

The film shows fourteen concrete roof constructions and bridges designed and built by Robert Maillart between 1910 and 1935: The warehouse on Zurich's Giesshübelstrasse (1910), the filter building in Rorschach (1912), the Maggazini Generali warehouse in Chiasso (1924), the aqueduct near Chatelard (1925), the bridge over the Valtschielbach (1925), Salginatobel Bridge (1930), Spital Bridge (1931), the bridges over the Bohlbach and the Rossgraben Bridge (all 1932), the bridge over the Schwandbach and the Thur Bridge near Felsegg (both 1933), the footbridge over the River Toess in Winterthur (1934) and the Arvebrücke near Geneva (1935). Shooting took place in April 1996.

Img 1: Warehouse (1910) at the Giesshübel Strasse in Zurich, Switzerland, April 15, 1996

Img 2: Filter building (1912) near Rorschach, Switzerland, April 16, 1996

Maillart's Bridges

Architecturs as Autobiography - Robert Maillart (1872-1940)
Photography und beyond - Part 3

Germany 1995-2000
35 mm, color, Dolby Stereo SR, 1 : 1,37, 24 minutes

Director, photography, editor: Heinz Emigholz
Collaborators: Andreas Senn, Thomas Wilk
Sound Design: Martin Langenbach
Sound Mix: Stephan Konken
Produced by Pym Films in cooperation with FilmFörderung Hamburg and the WDR, Wilfried Reichart

Premiere: Berlin Film Festival (Forum), February 9, 2001

Img 3: Maggazini Generali warehouse (1924) in Chiasso, Switzerland, April 18, 1996

Robert Maillart revolutionised concrete-based construction. By reducing the material to the essential load-bearing elements and redesigning these in his structures, he developed a completely novel world of forms. His interests and inventions - the girder-less and hollow-box arch, beam-less floor slab, three hinged arch and round-arched bridge with curving platform - amounted to an encyclopaedic exploration of the opportunities presented by concrete. The complex simplicity and elegance of the load-bearing structures set new aesthetic standards the world over. However, his rejection of massive construction methods and his reduction of forms to the essential lines of structural strength provoked mistrust among building authorities and led them to impose absurd conditions. His pioneering experiments can be found in out-of-the-way valleys of small cantons which gave him a free reign for his design.