Alexandre Gustave Eiffel is the great mind behind the Eiffel Tower. He was born on December 15, 1832 in Dijon, in France. Gustave Eiffel is considered as a creative genius because he applied innovative ideas to the construction of great buildings, and also because of his avant-garde design of the Eiffel tower, which is considered as a breakthrough in architecture and art.
I/ PROFESSIONAL PATH
A/ Gustave Eiffel was an intelligent scholars and finished brilliantly his studies.
- Graduated with degree both in Sciences and Humanity
- Graduated from the Engineering school Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in 1855
B/ Gustave Eiffel’s first job revealed his talent and his creativity, then he started an outstanding career in a business specializing in metal structural work in 1864
- Engineer on a project for a railway bridge, in Bordeaux, France.
Work considered great by critics; complete success
- Built great number of metal structures of all kinds all over the world
- Was renown for precise industrial installations
- Worked on the Porto viaduct over the River Duro in 1876, one of his most outstanding building
- Worked on the Garabit viaduct in 1884
- A mountainous barrier was an obstacle to reach Southern France in the late 1800
- For years, engineers tried to find a solution to the problem
- innovative idea of Eiffel: build a huge wrought-iron arch with a minimal amount of material to create a route
II/ THE EIFFEL TOWER: THE APOGEE OF EIFFEIL’S CREATIVITY
A/ By the end of his projects, Gustave Eiffel was a master of metal structural work, which lead him to the project of the Eiffel Tower
- spent the last thirty years of his life on the project of the Eiffel Tower
- wind resistance experiments
- innovative approach to the problem of wind loads
- studied an innovative solution to give resistance to the tower against wind
- imagined the Eiffel tower’s elegantly curved silhouette
- meteorological observation
B/ The elegantly curved shape of the Eiffel Tower reflects Eiffel’s creativity
- At that time, shape of the tower was impressive
- Eiffel’s purpose: to give impression of strength and beauty by the silhouette of the tower
- People shocked by such avant-garde work
- Shape reveals strong artistic temper
- Similar work never seen before
- Curve of the tower: result of mathematical calculation created by Eiffel
- Created a balance between aspiration to beauty and mathematical constraint
- Creativity help him struggling with natural conditions to build it
4 comments:
I've been to the Eiffel Tower . . . it was great!
Did you know that the Eiffel Tower symbolize man "power"? Think about the shape... and you'll see that it is unfortunately true :) I studied it in Art History while I was in college.
When I have seen Eifel Tower shining and sparkling in the night
it was beautiful!
OMG.
are your class's topic always like this?
anway.
I like your blog~~
have a nice day sweet
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