Eduardo Torroja: Material

Eduardo Torroja was Spanish architect. Explore interesting quotes on material.
Eduardo Torroja: 58 quotes0 likes

“Bricks are considered to be the first material created by human intelligence from the four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. …The great variety of designs and effects that artists of the past, especially the Arabs… were able to create in their brickwork, assembled with an element so monotonous… can be compared only with the beauty and attractiveness a romantic poet attained by adjusting his verses to the rigidity of a formal meter.”

Eduardo Torroja

Philosophy of Structures (1958)

“If you lean on a straight stick… [it] can resist your weight, despite its slenderness, as long as it remains straight; once it starts to bend, it will easily break. The danger of breaking increases with the deflection… [T]he danger of failure will diminish with the increased moment of inertia of the cross section, or if the same are of cross section should be maintained, by distributing the material in a hollow section.”

Eduardo Torroja

Philosophy of Structures (1958)

“Clay masonry, like concrete, is a "plastic" material that permits the pouring in situ of large monoliths of any shape or form, with certain limitations and by using special methods. Its economical possibilities when used in walls of popular housing, its excellent heat and sound insulation, as well as its aesthetic possibilities, should not be underestimated. Its resistance and durability can be substantially improved by using modern techniques and methods, for example, admixture of small amounts of Portland cement in accordance with granulometric investigation, petrographic composition, and rheological behaviour of all constituents.”

Eduardo Torroja

Philosophy of Structures (1958)

“Construction methods are… variable for each specific material.”

Eduardo Torroja

p, 125
Philosophy of Structures (1958)

“The material in all elementary parts of a structure must have the properties of resistence to all internal forces produced by general loading conditions and by the action of any exterior force.”

Eduardo Torroja

p, 125
Philosophy of Structures (1958)

“[M]aterials should resist mechanical forces and other effects… starting with all types of loading and external forces… and with the mechanical properties of the materials… constitutes the part given most emphasis in technical books and schools.”

Eduardo Torroja

p, 125
Philosophy of Structures (1958)

“Adobe (sun-dried clay bricks) is a material usable in regions where sandy clays suitable for fabrication are found. Adobe masonry, is, however, useful only for walls and structural elements subjected to lower values of tension and compression, and is, therefore, of little interest as a structural material.”

Eduardo Torroja

p, 125
Philosophy of Structures (1958)

“One should become so familiar with the structure as to have the feeling of being, in full vitality and sentiment, part of it and of all its elements. …it is necessary to achieve a sincere Einfühlung [empathy] of the process of resistence… through the deformation that is always essentially united with the process of stressing. …[T]he comprehension of a structure requires intuitive knowledge of the ethology of its resistance and of its constituent materials.”

Eduardo Torroja

Philosophy of Structures (1958)