Typological decision-making tree for the design of arch bridges from historical studies

Designing structures like bridges is a complex task and the role that analysis, principles or optimisation should play in their design is worthy of consideration. These approaches ultimately result in typological arrangements: structural principles or geometries and their dedicated behaviours. Historical analyses of Robert Maillart’s structures prove enlightening since he worked on a series of fifty bridges, the majority of which were arches. Maillart’s methods placed hypotheses regarding structural behaviour at the centre of the definition of form. His singular methods became part of the organisation of structural principles in action. This is even more evident when some of his structures encountered physical contexts that did not fit with the assumptions that had been made during their design, therefore testing the limits of these hypotheses. A correlation of some typologies can be made with specific physical contexts. A typological decision-making tree is proposed for the design of arch bridges in Maillart’s work as a synthesis for designers of arched structures