In the program "Historically yours" on Europe 1 this Monday, the journalist David Castello-Lopes returns to the origin of reinforced concrete.
A material invented by the Frenchman François Hennebique, and which is beginning to change from the dull image that he has been dragging for many years.
>> Every day in
Historically yours
, David Castello-Lopes looks back on the origins of an object or a concept.
This Monday, he is looking at reinforced concrete, one of the most resistant materials on the market.
For a long time, reinforced concrete dragged a dreary image before becoming trendy with, for example, the city of Le Havre.
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"There are materials that are stigmatized while others receive full honors. Rosewood, for example, immediately looks chic. But others are rejected from life and cause pain. Among them: the reinforced concrete. He really is the unloved of building materials. He is considered ugly, that he has no charm. So of course he is tough, but not tough like Brad Pitt. poor dock worker who works 12 hours a day, but who in the evening, after his twelve hours of work, is turned away at the entrance of the nightclub.
A material invented by a French mason ...
However, he does us immensely service, in silence, discreetly, without farting.
They are made into bridges and buildings of admirable solidity.
But where does it come from?
The answer can be found in the cemetery of Bourg-La-Reine where the singer Carlos is buried, but also the founder of reinforced concrete, François Hennebique.
People before him had filed for patents in this direction in the 19th century.
But François Hennebique is the first to have found a way for reinforced concrete to be easily used on construction sites.
His story is atypical since he is not at all an engineer, but a mason.
A mason who not only invented brilliant technological processes but who, on top of that, had a kind of business genius.
He started a business and did a crazy ad that went really well.
In particular by building in 1903 a beautiful residential building in reinforced concrete in Paris which still exists at 6 rue Danton.
... and popularized by Auguste Perret
From there, reinforced concrete, with a number of improvements, became the quintessential modern building material.
Partly also thanks to an architect whom I am sure you know: Auguste Perret.
He began to imagine lots of super prestigious reinforced concrete buildings.
Like the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées or the Economic and Social Council in Paris.
Above all, at the end of his life, he rebuilt in reinforced concrete the entire city center of Le Havre which had been bombarded by the allies during the war.
The people of Le Havre, on the whole, found the new reinforced concrete version of their city to be super ugly.
It must be said, everyone was in agreement with them… Le Havre for a long time bore the nickname of Stalingrad sur Mer. And then, in 2005, the city center of this port city was placed on the world heritage list. of UNESCO.
Basically, this represents today the most prestigious status that a human construction can obtain.
Since then, Le Havre is cool again.
Suddenly, reinforced concrete is becoming fashionable.
Today, in Le Havre, there are "hipsters" everywhere in the streets who look up in ecstasy.
The "hipsters" reinforce this coolness even more because they are a bit like UNESCO, they are machines for transforming uncool things into cool things.
All this to say that reinforced concrete is always a super tough dock worker who works twelve hours a day.
Except now he's going to a nightclub. "