August Eduard Komendant (October 2, 1906 – September 14, 1992) was an Estonian and American structural engineer and a pioneer in the field of prestressed concrete, which can be used to build stronger and more graceful structures than normal concrete. He was born in Estonia and educated in engineering in Germany. After World War II he immigrated to the United States, where he wrote several books on structural engineering and served as a professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
Komendant worked with architect Louis Kahn in a productive but contentious collaboration that lasted from 1956 until Kahn's death in 1974. His innovative work as Kahn's structural engineer helped Kahn create several architecturally significant buildings, including two that won the prestigious Twenty-five Year Award given by the American Institute of Architects. He also served as structural engineer for architect Moshe Safdie on the Habitat 67 project in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Life
August E. Komendant was born in 1906
in Mäo Parish, Estonia. After his studies in engineering at the Technical Institute in Dresden, Germany, he returned to Estonia where he was responsible for several major bridges and other structures.
After Germany overran Estonia during World War II, Komendant was shipped back to Germany to work on war projects. He was interned by the U.S. Army in the latter stages of the war and was recruited by General George Patton to work for him. According to Komendant, when Patton ordered him to inspect a damaged bridge to see if it would support the weight of his tanks, Komendant used a brush and white paint to mark a wavy route across the bridge that tanks could safely follow and then rode across the bridge with Patton. After the war he was assigned to work for the U.S. Army rebuilding war-damaged bridges.
In 1950, Komendant immigrated to the U.S. and set up a consulting practice in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. In 1952, based on his experience with developing techniques for using pre-stressed concrete to rebuild war-damaged bridges, he published Prestressed Concrete Structures, a book that established him as an authority on the subject. Komendant was fond of explaining how pre-stressed concrete works by demonstrating that one can lift a row of books by squeezing them together so tightly that they act as a single strong unit. Similarly, steel cables or bars under high tension can be used to "squeeze" concrete, making it much stronger than it otherwise would be. This type of concrete can be used to build structures that are lighter, more graceful, and in a much greater variety of shapes than standard concrete.
Komendant was Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania from 1959 to 1974 and visiting professor at the Pratt Institute in the late 1970s.
Collaboration with Louis Kahn
In 1956 Komendant met architect Louis Kahn, who was soon to become one of the most honored architects of his time, and began a contentious but highly productive collaboration that lasted until Kahn's death 18 years later. Kahn was five years older than Komendant and, like him, had been born in Estonia.
Kahn had decided in the early 1950s that he would no longer use the relatively lightweight steel structures that were typical of modern architecture. He had come to the conclusion that only structures made of reinforced concrete would allow him to achieve his goal of creating structures that would simultaneously provide support, shape spaces and furnish integral sculptural embellishment. This approach required the collaboration of a structural engineer who understood Kahn's architectural philosophy, one who could grasp the effect Kahn wanted to produce with a proposed design and suggest a suitable alternative if it was not practical from an engineering standpoint. Komendant, who was already known for his expertise with pre-stressed concrete, proved to be a creative thinker and a productive collaborator. Kahn described him as "'one of the rare engineers qualified to guide the architect to develop meaningful form". According to Robert McCarter, one of Kahn's biographers, "Komendant would serve as Kahn's primary consultant on the majority of his commissions for the rest of his career".
The first project they worked on together, the Richards Medical Research Laboratories, was a breakthrough project for Kahn, his first to receive widespread recognition. Two other buildings they worked on together, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Kimbell Art Museum, received the prestigious Twenty-five Year Award, which is given by the American Institute of Architects to only one building per year.