Eminent Structural Engineer: Eduardo Torroja (1899-1961)

摘要

The figure of Eduardo Torroja (1899-1961) is of a special type which destiny gives to society as an exclusively occasional gift: a genius, but a genius who worked hard, wisely, and often fruitful only after a continuous extraordinary effort. He inherited from his father, mathematician and architect, a special interest for Geometry and Art, disciplines that he cultivated throughout his life. His son Jose Antonio, also an outstanding structural engineer, points out that the book by Eduardo Torroja, Philosophy of Structures (1958), contains two rather disregarded chapters: The Aesthetic Expression and Line and Surface. Torroja related to both the topics. Besides the relatively well-known hyperboloids and ruled surfaces he used, as Jose Antonio highlights, the apse of the church in Pont de Suert was designed by him as a logarithmic spiral laying on circular directrices.