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The Introduction of the Hennebique Reinforced Concrete System in the Russian Empire, 1898-1907
(2021)
As a part of the research field concerning the transfer of European knowledge to the Russian Empire, this paper concentrates on the transfer of technical knowledge. It describes the introduction and application of a reinforced concrete construction method developed around I886 by the French bricklayer and construction site supervisor François Hennebique. The Hennebique system was promoted by his worldwide professional network, including in the Russian Empire. Paul de Monicourt, a French engineer, was the main figure associated with the promotion of this method throughout the Russian Empire. He established his first office in southwestern Ekaterinoslav specialized in industrial buildings and bridges. After sharing his construction and calculation methods with the engineers of Russian Railways, he lost his monopoly hold on bridge construction in the Russian Empire. Moving his focus to the north, he established an additional office in Saint Petersburg, where he began to work in dome construction. In I905, de Monicourt began a partnership with a local construction company. His involvement in this partnership makes it difficult to trace his later activity and individual achievements since this company took over the spread of Hennebique system in the Russian Empire.
As a part of the wide research field regarding the introduction of European knowledge to the Russian Empire and its adoption and implementation, this paper shines a light on aspects of early reinforced concrete knowledge transfer. The development of reinforced concrete in Russia has been studied and described in Russian publications of the Soviet and later periods to a limited extent. However, the evident and substantial influence of European knowledge and the contributions of European specialists from France, Germany, Swit-zerland, and Austria has remained unexamined. Drawing on historical, technical, and periodical literature as well as on archival documents, this paper describes three different examples of knowledge transfer and their influence on the local development of reinforced concrete.
The omission of the contribution of European specialists to the development of early reinforced concrete in the publications of the Soviet and later periods led to this research. An investigation of the technical literature and archival documents brought about new discoveries. European engineers and representatives of well-known European construction companies played an important role in the early development of reinforced concrete in the Russian Empire. This paper describes the introduction and the development of this construction technology in Saint Petersburg and is an extract from the author’s doctoral thesis on the development of rein-forced concrete in the Russian Empire from its inception to the outbreak of the October Revolution.
This paper discusses the development of shell structures in the context of the application of early reinforced concrete in the Russian Empire. Following a short discussion of the context and general conditions, the main construction methods are addressed. Different types of buildings are analysed in the paper, covering the period from the first structures in 1888 until the revolution of 1917. Special attention is given to shell constructions and their supporting structures. As they are intricate and technically advanced, these structures arguably represent the highest point in the development of early reinforced concrete.
The research was based on Soviet era and later construction history publications, archival documents, and drawings as well as historical technical literature on the topic in Russian, French, German, and English. Such a broad overview has allowed the history of the development of early reinforced concrete constructions to be seen from different perspectives.
The vaults over the choir and nave of Notre‐Dame in Paris play a key role in the development of Gothic vaults—regarding their sheer height and span, and in particular their complex stone structure. A considerable dynamic in the development of new construction details can be seen in solutions that in some cases are still quite distinct from the well‐known constructions of the great Gothic vaults, and that in other cases, although innovative, remain more or less singular. The design of the sexpartite vaults follows a scheme established in the early Gothic and at the same time displays groundbreaking conceptions in geometry and construction. The fire of the roof that in 2019 damaged part of the vaults, but also showed their remarkable structural performance, brought up the necessity of better understanding these structures while also giving deep insight into construction details. The ongoing research presented here correlates geometric analyses based on 3D‐scanning, carried out on the vaults in Notre‐Dame and on comparable structures, observations on construction details on site, and sources such as historical drawings, with large‐scale experiments reproducing the processes of construction, fabrication of building elements, as well as planning and information transfer from design to building. The approach that refers to the built object as its principal source can be characterized as reverse engineering.
The introduction of early reinforced concrete by the European specialists in the Russian Empire can be divided into two development periods. Due to their intensive efforts, the new construction method was successfully introduced in constructions of public, residential and industrial buildings at the end of the 19th century using the well-known Monier and Hennebique systems. The application of the construction method during this stage of development ranged from single building elements to small-scale structures. At the beginning of the 20th century, the increasing adoption of the application of construction methods in all fields of construction by Russian specialists and the unstable political situation in the country led to the interruption of the activity of foreign specialists. After the political situation had stabilised and the country experienced a new wave of industrialisation, construction activity by Europeans was relaunched with impetus. Drawing on catalogues of the construction companies, on historical technical literature and on available archival documents, this paper names the important European specialists and describes their buildings constructed during this phase in the Russian Empire. Special attention is paid to the large scale skeletal structures.