Biography

 

 

First admitted as an architect at the age of 17, he quickly became a works manager and was notably in charge of the construction of the main sewer that replaced the ditch running through the Halles de Paris.

In 1747, Jean-Rodolphe Perronet was appointed by Royal Order to the head of the Royal Draughtsman’s Office recently created by Charles Daniel Trudaine to map the kingdom.His task was to train the engineers and monitor their activity in their different functions.Thus began the history of France’s oldest engineering school, which in 1775 became the Royal School of Bridges and Roads.An organiser, leader and teacher, he was a true “spiritual father” to his students, and introduced an original pedagogical method which, today, seems very modern.He would remain director of the School until his death.

His achievements as an engineer are as remarkable and innovative as those as Director of the School.This is evidenced in the some twenty bridges he designed.He proposed new engineering models, exploiting his architectural background and the ideas of the time on hydrodynamics and the quest for minimum resistance to water pressure.This formed the basis of his theory of low arches with multiple supports.He was also a major road builder (over his career, 2500 km of roads were opened or improved under his supervision), an expert in water works, involved in the development of ports and harbours, and gave skilled advice on a multitude of other projects. He was also interested in operational organisation, and his analyses are included in Alembert and Diderot’s Encyclopaedia.Appointed “Chief Engineer”, “Chief Architect”, and member of the Academy of Architecture in 1736, from 1757 to 1786 he was Inspector General of Salines and in 1768 one of the three directors of Cassini Map.

A friend of Voltaire, Diderot, Buffon, Bélidor, nicknamed the “Vauban of engineering “, he died in a modest house close to Pont Louis XVI (today Pont de la Concorde), which he had designed a few years earlier.

 

 

 

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