Eduardo Torroja Miret

To understand the work of Eduardo Torroja Miret, considered in his time as a creator and innovator within the field of structures, it is necessary to reread the prologue of his book “Razón y Ser de los Tipos Estructurales” ("Reason and Being of Structural Types"), in which the author himself tells us:

Each material has a different specific personality, and each form imposes a different tensional phenomenon.
The natural solution of a problem – art without artifice -, optimal in front of the set of previous taxes that originated it, impresses with its message, satisfying, at the same time, the demands of the technician and the artist.
The birth of a structural whole, the result of a creative process, a fusion of technique with art, of ingenuity with study, of imagination with sensitivity, escapes from the pure domain of logic to enter the secret frontiers of inspiration.
Before and above all calculation there is the idea, moulding the material into a resistant form, to fulfil its mission.
This book is dedicated to that idea.

“Razón y Ser de los Tipos Estructurales”. (Reason and Being of Structural Types).
Madrid. Editorial CSIC, 2010

Biographical Data

He was born in Madrid on August 27, 1899.

  • Civil Engineer (1923).
  • He worked in Compañía de Construcciones Hidráulicas y Civiles-Hidrocivil -until 1927, when he set up a Technical Office for Studies and Projects.
  • Professor at E.T.S.I.C.y P.(since 1939) and E.T.S.A.M. (1928 y 1929)
  • Director of the Central Materials Testing Laboratory.
  • Director of Public Works.
  • Director of the Instituto Técnico de la Construcción y del Cemento. Today Eduardo Torroja Institute for Construction Science.
  • Member of Spanish National Research Council.
  • Member of Consejo del Instituto de Racionalización.
  • Chairman of the Material Testing Standardisation Committee, the Civil Engineering Committee and the Construction Industry Committee.
  • Full member of Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales.
  • Corresponding member of Real Academia de Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona.
  • Corresponding member of Academia de Ciencias, Bellas Letras y Nobles Artes de Córdoba.
  • Caballero Gran Cruz de las Ordenes de Alfonso X el Sabio y del Mérito Civil.
  • Honorary Member of Instituto de Ingenieros Civiles y del Instituto de la Soldadura
  • Doctor Honoris Causa of the Zurich Polytechnic.
  • Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Toulouse.
  • Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Buenos Aires.
  • Doctor Honoris Causa of the Universidad Católica de Chile
  • Honorary Member of the American Concrete Institute (U.S.A.).
  • Honorary Member of the Prestressed Concrete Development Group (England).
  • Honorary Member of the Billner International Scientifie Group.
  • Honorary Member of the Sociedad Central de Arquitectos de Buenos Aires.
  • Full Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers -ASCE- (U.S.A.)
  • Chairman of the Fédération Internationale de la Précontrainte -FIP-.
  • Chairman of the International Committee on Shell Structures.
  • Chairman of the Joint Committee for Overloads and Safety Factors.
  • Member of the Bureau de l’Association Internationale des Ponts et Charpentes.
  • Member of the Bureau de la Réunion Internationale des Laboratoires d’Essais de Matériaux et de Constructions –RILEM-.
  • Member of the Executive Committee International Council for Building –CIB-.
  • Member of the Comité Européen du Béton -CEB-.
  • Member of the Research Committee of the American Concrete Institute –ACI– (U.S.A.).
  • Member of the Liaison Committee of the Associations Internationales Techniques de la Construction.
  • Former Professor (visiting Professor) of Princeton and Harvard Universities, Raleigh School of Architecture and Massachusetts Technical Institute in the USA and University of Buenos Aires, in Argentina.
  • Member of the Board of Directors of the Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos.
  • Corresponding Member of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, de Buenos Aires, December 1959.
  • Honorary Engineer of the University of Liege (March 1961).
  • He died in Madrid (working in his office at the IETcc) on 15th June 1961.
  • Title of the Kingdom with the nomination as Marqués de Torroja as of October 1, 1961.

Calculus Decreasing for Eduardo Torroja

Since the mid-sixties, to the not unique but predominant influence of the Portuguese poet Joao Cabral de Melo, was joined in Gabino-Alejandro Carriedo, by hobby and professional dedication, the interest in the work of architects, sculptors and painters Spanish and universal contemporary, resulting in the book libro Los lados del cubo (The sides of the cube), published in 1973. It included the elegiac poem Calculus Decreasing for Eduardo Torroja, which paid tribute to the famous civil engineer, designer, scientist, manager and teacher; born almost with the century and died prematurely in 1961.

SOURCE| madri+d  Sección Poesía y Ciencia.

1. Entre el puente de hormigón
pretensado
(construido aguas arriba
de su corazón valiente)
y la cubierta circular,
expiró el ingeniero.

2. Ni la luz de aquel vano
alzado en vigas longitudinales
prefabricado por dovelas
salvarlo pudo
de las sombras.

3. Ni los cordones de los cables
de redondo
calculados para tan fiel tensión
evitaron su rotura.

4. Su vida matemática
concluyó
exactamente.

5. Cosido transversal,
definitivo anclaje.

6. In situ.

Gabino-Alejandro Carriedo
Palencia, 1923 – San Sebastián de los Reyes. Madrid, 1981