• 1 Francesca B. Filippi, Da Torino a Bangkok. Architetti e ingegneri nel Regno del Siam, Venezia: Mar (...)
• 2 The research was carried out within the scope of the project for international cooperation “archin (...)
• 3 Guy Lambert, “Bridges as ambassadors: Hennebique’s expansion in North Africa,” in Claudine Piaton, (...)

1Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, Siam opened up to penetration by Western construction-industry professionals and companies. The Italian presence endured, as a long-lasting phenomenon. Initially linked to projects by individual contractors, it gradually intensified, thanks to the signing of commercial agreements with Italy, and was strengthened through personal relationships that developed between the members of the royal families ruling the two countries (the Chakri and Savoia families). This paper expands on prior research1 that has investigated the role played by Italian professionals, technicians, and entrepreneurs in the modernization process in foreign countries. Our goal in this article is to deepen our analysis2 of certain aspects of this process, drawing particular attention to the sites for the construction of some reinforced concrete and iron bridges built in Siam over a period of almost 40 years (1894–1932). As it was recently observed,3 the considerable technological expertise required for these structures helped assert the authority of Western enterprises and construction systems (Hennebique and Eiffel, in this case) outside Europe. In any case, for the sovereigns of Siam, bridges mainly took on great symbolic value as the settings for dynastic celebrations, being capable of lending shape to the international and modern image the Siamese royal family wanted to convey. On the sites we examined, Italian and French professionals and businesses were constantly engaged in fierce competition with one another. Relations were ambiguous, vacillating between Siam’s need to recruit European technicians, and its equally important need to resist the political and economic pressure exerted by European firms.

• 4 Historians agree in identifying 1855 (Bowring Treaty, commercial treaty with Britain) as the symbo (...)
• 5 Ibid.
• 6 The most important participations were: Paris 1867, Le Havre 1868, Paris 1878, Antwerp 1885, Paris (...)
• 7 After being crowned in 1868, King Chulalongkorn reigned until 1910 under the name of Rama V.
• 8 On the events linked with Dusit Park and the construction of the Throne Hall see Maurizio Peleggi, (...)
• 9 The first School of Architecture in Thailand was set up in Bangkok in 1933 and it engaged the serv (...)
• 10 The data is reported by Riccardo Motta in a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok, Th (...)
• 11 Carlo Allegri, Relazione delle opere compiute dal 1890 al 1911 dal Dipartimento dei Lavori Pubblic (...)
• 12 Camillo Guidi, “Notizie sul laboratorio per esperienze sui materiali da costruzione annesso alla R (...)
• 13 Riccardo Nelva and Bruno Signorelli, Avvento ed evoluzione del calcestruzzo armato in Italia: il s (...)

4Beginning in the 1850s, the policies of the kings of Siam focused on giving the kingdom a high level of siwilai (civilisation) by promoting a modernization plan which was implemented over almost 80 years (1855–1932).4 King Rama V (1853–1910) collected the Western cultural references and models that underpinned this plan in the course of several journeys to various Asian colonies (Java, India, Singapore) and to European capital cities (in 1897 and then in 1907).5 Another source was Siam’s participation in international exhibitions.6 However, above all, ministers, officials, and other prominent Siamese civil servants were groomed for leadership by training in European schools. Historians agree that Siam’s kings were quite successful in preventing the country from being conquered by a foreign power, while maintaining central role for it in the Southeast Asian colonial economy, run by Britain and France in India and Indochina respectively. Recognized as an independent kingdom by the French-British agreement of 1896, Siam experienced a strong renewal, under the reign of King Rama V.7 This boost was driven by a push for administrative rationalization which reached every sector of the government, and upgraded systems for legislation, education, defense, international policy, economy, and public works. The rhetoric of symbols and languages often used to celebrate the image of the king and the Chakri dynasty was flanked by interventions aimed at giving shape to Siam’s international image, where the staging of progress was achieved through high-tech, modern constructions. In this process, the coexistence of projects emphasized the break with the past, on the one hand, while, on the other hand, refocusing attention on the centrality of the relationship between the king as an authority figure and Bangkok, the capital city. The transformation of the Siamese territory was preceded and accompanied by the renewal of Bangkok. For example, in 1863, an extensive road network was built as a partial substitution for the traditional system of river transport. It succeeded in changing the face of the capital from “water city” to “land city.” Also decisive for Bangkok was Rama’s decision to move the ancient royal palace from the citadel, in the heart of the capital, to the new Throne Hall, built on the area of the Dusit Suan (celestial garden).8 The monarch also planned to redesign the structure of entire districts of the city and develop its infrastructural links with the rest of the country. From 1896, work on organizing the transport network accelerated, guaranteed by a consistent policy of investment in the railway construction. Thanks to these new lines, Siam gradually moved into a key role in the trade links between British markets in Malaysia and French markets in Indochina. Between 1874 and 1907, the flow of income into the king’s treasury rose from 1.6 million baht to no less than 57 million. This figure is the most striking evidence of the success of Rama’s policies of centralizing administration and taxation. These revenues funded the building frenzy characterizing Siam at the end of the nineteenth-century. Regulating the construction and public works markets and appointing Siamese officials to head ministries, Rama instituted order in the confusion of private licenses and contracts, often funded with foreign capital. He rapidly did away with the standard practice of granting construction and management rights to Western companies. These choices, however, slowed the implementation of the public works plan, due to the absence of engineering and other technical schools and institutes for builders and planners.9 Similarly, the kingdom lacked local companies for the production of non-traditional building materials like concrete, as well as companies equipped with heavy machinery suited to the construction of large works using innovative techniques. This said, these policies created an abundance of work opportunities for Europeans and Americans, along with the possibility of employment in the kingdom’s civil service. The fact that foreign professionals were hired by the government contributed to the even deeper absorption of Western influences by the Siamese state. It also highlighted how heavily the assignments were influenced by the balances between the colonial powers and Siam. Professionals who were able to rely on the neutrality of the mother country in the international race towards colonial expansion were the candidates most likely to succeed in Siam. In 1902, of 190 foreign nationals employed by the government, there were only seven Italians, compared to 90 British, 41 Germans, 35 Danes, eight Belgians and two French.10 In 1905, there were 30 Italians, 11 of whom were employed by the Department of Public Works. However, the highest concentration was reached during the construction of the Throne Hall (1907–1916).11 This site is recognized as having been particularly important, due to the role played by Italian professionals as mediators, introducing Western architectural culture and experiment with its technique in Siam. On the one hand, the site proved the positive outcome of the close collaboration between academically trained architects and engineers from polytechnic institutes. On the other hand, the Throne Hall marked an important turning point in the country’s modernization, being the first use of Hennebique-system reinforced concrete structures. The fact that the French company Hennebique was engaged for this project was mainly due to the endorsement of expatriates from Turin (the home city of the Italian Hennebique associate Giovanni Antonio Porcheddu) in the Siamese Department of Public Works. Mario Tamagno and Annibale Rigotti, who drew up the project for the Throne Hall, were both graduates of Turin’s Accademia Albertina. Emilio Giovanni Gollo, in particular, a graduate in industrial engineering from the School of Application for Engineers in Turin (which later became the Polytechnic), was responsible for the structural design of the Palace and many other reinforced concrete works commissioned by the Royal Household to the Department of Public Works. Before beginning his career in Siam, Emilio Giovanni Gollo had already had opportunities to approach the use of reinforced concrete, thanks to Italian education programmers aimed at cultivating the link between theory and practice, and training and business. In Turin, this link had been consolidated via the introduction of the study of reinforced-concrete technique in courses and construction workshops, even before a theory for the calculation of loads in reinforced concrete structures was formulated and taught at the School of Applications.12 This was the result of the school’s close ties with the Turin offices of the Porcheddu company, which was licensed by Maison Hennebique in 1894 for Northern Italy (and also later by the Société par Compression Mécanique du Sol). By 1907, Porcheddu had already built more than 1,000 structures using this system.13

• 14 Walter E. J. Tips, Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns and the making of modern Siam: the diaries and letters (...)
• 15 From a letter written by Rolin-Jaequemyns in June 1899 to Swiss politician Numa Droz, see: Ibid., (...)
• 16 The number of Europeans employed by the Siamese government is recorded in a letter sent to the Ita (...)
• 17 Siam was reacting to France’s move to annex Siamese territory on the eastern bank of the Mekong, i (...)
• 18 Letter of the Italian consul Riccardo Motta to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok, dated 4 J (...)
• 19 Neungreudee Lohapon, Buon Fratello e Amico: Thailandia-Italia 140 anni di relazioni italo-thailand (...)
• 20 The Paolo Grassi private archive in Turin (Italy) has conserved several documents making it possib (...)
• 21 Manfredo Camperio, Agenzie del Consorzio Industriale Italiano per il Commercio coll’Estremo Orient (...)

6The decision by the Kingdom of Siam to employ expatriate European consultants, engineers, and architects gave them a key role in the Siamese civil service. In particular, it increased the technical skills and know-how the country had at its disposal to achieve its construction aims. The government planned to endow Siam with important infrastructures that were feats of modern engineering. The consultants, whose story is still largely to be written, were required to provide expert opinion on the works to be carried out. They were allowed so much autonomy in choosing the people and businesses to whom they contracted the works that they became pivotal figures in the recruitment of more foreign professionals. In 1892, Belgian engineer Rolin-Jaequemyns was hired as general adviser to the Kingdom.14 He undertook the recruitment of a new railway systems engineer. The letter he wrote as part of his search in Europe for “a first-rate engineer, belonging to a neutral state, capable of being a good consultant to the Minister of Public Works”15 highlights the ambiguous relationship between the Siamese government’s recruitment needs and the political pressure imposed by foreigners in Siam. The fact that European nations were implicitly competing for the assignments is attested by clear divisions of the assignments by nationality. The British, in particular, prevailed for a long time in the fields of finance, education, police, and railways. Danes dominated the navy; Germans, the postal services and railways; and Italians gained a strong and widely recognized role in architecture, along with German and French building professionals, prominent in public works and infrastructure.16 The presence of all of these expats was contingent to a great degree on the teetering balance of power between Siam and the European colonial countries operating in South East Asia. For example, after the “Paknam incident” (1893), when three French ships were fired on by a Siamese fort and force of gunboats, the number of French professionals decreased considerably.17 Despite the internationally renowned skills, particularly in the Public Works sector, of the French builders, this incident placed them at a serious disadvantage, along with contractors from other European nations who had become protégés of France. On this matter, it is interesting to note the 1903 letter from the Italian consul Riccardo Motta to his home ministry in Rome: “The French […] want the best places […]. I shall not allow them to interfere with the progress already made by our people at the engineering department of the Ministry of Public Works.”18 Italy’s marginal role in colonial politics, along with close relations between the Chakri dynasty and certain members of the Royal House of Savoy, greatly benefited Italian interests in this case. These relations, officially launched by the friendship and trade treaty signed between Italy and Siam in 1868, were consolidated over the years thanks to repeated exchange visits between the monarchs and diplomatic representatives of the two countries.19 In 1911, on the occasion of the Siamese participation in the International Exhibition in Turin, Carlo Allegri, general manager of the Department of Public Works of the Kingdom of Siam, presented a report to Rama VI describing the department’s staff in detail. The Engineering section included Emilio Giovanni Gollo (chief engineer); Giuseppe Canova, seconded to the State Railways; the provincial engineers, Edmondo Roberti, A. Spigno and M. Sala, and the assistants G. Levi, A. Facchinetti, L. Giacone, P. Coletti, G. Guasco and L. Baghini. The Architecture section comprised Mario Tamagno (chief architect) and Annibale Rigotti (present in Bangkok in 1907-09, and then active from Italy as consultant architect), G. Salvatore, Alfredo Rigazzi, Oreste Tavella, Ercole Manfredi, Bernardo Moreschi and Paolo Remedi. Other Italian staff members belonged to the painting, sculpting, plaster decorating, and marble crafting departments. These people were incorporated into the large number of Italian companies operating in the construction sector in Bangkok. The first traces of this international cooperation were documented in the mid-nineteenth century, when work was carried out by the Grassi brothers’20 company, where both Carlo Allegri and Paolo Remedi began their careers. Italian commercial penetration was quite limited but, from the end of the 1890s, Siam was reached by some member companies of the Consorzio Industriale Italiano per il Commercio con l’Estremo Oriente, based in Milan and founded in 1897 at the initiative of Manfredo Camperio.21 Among them were the Società Italiana dei Cementi e delle Calci Idrauliche from Vittorio Veneto; the Novi marble studios from Genoa; S. Ghilardi and Co., a Milan engineering firm which manufactured cement and tiles, and Larini Nathan & Co., also based in Milan, whose activity covered roofs and beams, bridge construction, mechanical engineering, the design of power plants for drinking water supplies and hydraulic power transmission, and trade in steel components for railways and tramways.

• 22 Gustavo Strafforello, La Patria. Geografia dell’Italia: cenni storici, costume, topografia, prodot (...)
• 23 Vittorio Marchis, Domenico Borini (1861–1919): Un’impresa internazionale, Turin: Centro studi piem (...)
• 24 Ibid., p. 63. At P. Gallotti’s lecture on the technique in Paris, for the opening of the Expositio (...)
• 25 See the contribution of Vilma Fasoli.
• 26 Vittorio Marchis, Domenico Borini (1861–1919), op. cit. (note 23), p. 116.

9To understand the reasons for this choice, it is essential to reconstruct the complexity of the networks and relations that connected Bangkok to Turin and Paris. The interpretation proposed here is that, as a result of this choice, Italian engineers played a decisive role in the penetration of Siam by French construction companies. For different reasons, both Carlo Allegri and Emilio Giovanni Gollo were fully aware of the problems connected to the construction of foundations on unstable land, and of the reinforced concrete construction solutions the Hennebique system could offer. Having graduated in industrial engineering from Turin’s School of Application for Engineers, Emilio Giovanni Gollo was equipped with an education that had combined courses in theory and workshops. The Museum of Industry on campus had given him an opportunity to further his knowledge of the Hennebique technique. Carlo Allegri, on the other hand, had never completed his degree. However, he came from an important family of construction contractors with extensive experience in bridge construction. Among the famous spans built by the Allegri family were the Regina Margherita and Umberto I Bridges in Rome, in 1891 and 1895, respectively.22 In Turin, Eusebio Allegri’s business had carried out prominent works in partnership with the Domenico Borini construction firm. Borini, who had learned the Dulac system for building foundations using pressurized caissons, later to be known as the Compressol system, when he was working in France with the Montagnier company,23 became a specialist in foundation construction24. The Allegri-Borini partnership produced the Umberto I Bridge in Turin, completed in 1903. Located on the outskirts of Turin, in San Mauro Torinese, it was a challenging structure to build: its nine arches (each spanning 23 meters) stand on compressed-air foundations going 6 meters below the bed of the River Po. It was successfully completed in 1910. Domenico Borini had moreover maintained a long-standing relationship with Società Nazionale Officine Savigliano (snos) going back to 1884, thanks to which he had extended his skills from brick structures to those in reinforced concrete, and culminating in his expertise with the pressurized-caisson method.25 In the early years of the twentieth-century, the Borini Company had achieved international fame in this field. According to the memories of the family’s heirs, Domenico Borini had received an invitation from the Siamese Government to take part in the bid for tender for the construction of the foundations of the Throne Hall. However, “there had been problems of extreme complexity in terms of execution as well as management and administration, and the Borinis decided not to present the bid.”26

• 27 P. G., “Le Béton armé et les Ponts au Siam,” Le Béton Armé, no. 144, 1910, p. 67–69. URL: http://l (...)
• 28 Berengario Moreschi, born near Mantua in 1874, graduated in Architecture and Construction Engineer (...)
• 29 Rome (Italy), Private archive of the engineer Roberti, letter from G. Kluzer to Edmondo Roberti di (...)
• 30 The documents cite the engineers Olivieri and Eymard. See letter from G. Kluzer to Edmondo Roberti (...)
• 31 Carlo Allegri, Relazione delle opere compiute dal 1890 al 1911 dal Dipartimento dei Lavori Pubblic (...)
• 32 Pont Rajadamri à Bangkok, Propriétaire l’État du Siam, Concessionnaire La Société de Fondations, 2 (...)

10March 1908, the Société Anonyme de Fondations par Compression Mécanique du Sol or Compressol was in Bangkok to begin the construction of the 500 foundation posts sunk to a depth of about 12 meters (fig. 1). These pilings were subsequently to be “tied together and strengthened by powerful reinforced-concrete gemelle designed by Maison Hennebique.”27 Emilio Giovanni Gollo, the engineer, was in Europe at the time but was “expected to arrive by the end of May. The French team is working on the foundations of the Hall, but we still do not know whether the famous posts will remain stable or whether they will sink into the deep […] the engineer Moreschi28 is supervising the works in reinforced concrete being built by the French.”29 In May, more reinforced-concrete engineers and building contractors arrived from Italy30 and on November 11, 1908, the first foundation stone was laid, with the name “Compressol” engraved on it. According to the engineer Carlo Allegri, after two years of work, “our monthly measurements of the levels began to report […] sinking of the foundations […]. Gollo quickly designed and installed a new system of foundations, during an adverse season characterized by the seepage of water into the subsurface, demolishing all or part of the new posts. […] Tall, waterproof caissons made of reinforced concrete were installed under every part of the building. These were connected with suitable passages so that the Hall, on which work never stopped, floated on the awful land that the Compressol posts had failed to cross completely in order to reach the bedrock.”31 Emilio Giovanni Gollo applied the principles of a foundation system that, once again, was part of a construction culture studied at Polytechnic and consolidated in Turin by the Borini company’s business. In Bangkok, the team from Turin shared knowhow with Société Compressol which was using “des caissons évidés en vue de ne pas dépasser le coefficient de travail du sol qui avait été fixé à 700 gr par cm^2”32 in the construction of bridge over the Kong Mahanak the same year, 1908.

• 33 Le Béton Armé, nos. 155–156, 1911. URL: http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/000/895/607/RUG01-000895 (...)

11The relationship developing between Italian and French builders working on the Throne Hall project and other sites in Bangkok coincided with the peak of Turin’s prominence as the most active Italian city in the debate on and experimentation with the Hennebique and Compressol systems. With Italy preparing to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its national unification (1911), in Rome, Borini, Société Compressol and the company owned by the engineer G. A. Porcheddu were busy with one of the most daring building sites in the history of reinforced-concrete construction: the single-span Risorgimento Bridge, with its 100-metre arch (fig. 2). The national semi-centennial was celebrated in Turin with an Industrial Exhibition. Borini, Compressol, and Porcheddu, collaborating on works along the banks of the River Po starting in 1908, were so successful that they were the subject of a series of articles published by the journal Le Béton Armé.33

• 34 Emilio Giovanni Gollo’s letter to Edmondo Roberti di Castelvero, Bangkok, 19 February 1904. Rome ( (...)
• 35 “Il commercio italiano, ora incipiente, si sta ampliando e tende a farsi strada con successo. E la (...)

14Carlo Allegri reports that two of these bridges were “all teak wood, with connections, joints, plates, and bolts made of iron”: a two-span bridge (sixty meters each) built on the river Me Ping Nacom in Lampang and a three-span bridge (sixty meters each) in Chiengmai. On the latter, di Castelvero corresponded with Emilio Giovanni Gollo to resolve technical difficulties, exchanging sketches and details concerning the joints between the wooden beams. Emilio Giovanni Gollo mentioned an iron bridge over the river Menam (weighing over 2,000 tons), built in 1905 using the same cantilever system as the Forth Bridge near Edinburgh.34 The most famous Italian bridges, however, are the monumental spans built in Bangkok: the Makkhawan Rangsan, 1900–1901 (fig. 6) and the Phan Fa Lilat, 1907 (fig. 7), along the road linking the ancient royal citadel and Dusit Park. They made a pleasant urban vista out of the crossing from the inner-city area to the suburb. Designed by the Turin architect Mario Tamagno in collaboration with the chief of the Public Works Department Carlo Allegri and the engineer Emilio Giovanni Gollo, the two bridges were elaborately decorated with marble pylons, wrought-iron railings, and lampposts. Eclectic in style, they combined the neo-classical and massive monumentality of the stone pylons with the lightness of art nouveau flourishes like the floral details on the railings. Unfortunately, although we searched thoroughly, we failed to uncover documents proving which companies were involved in the construction of the Italian-design bridges. Likewise, it is impossible to analyze such aspects of the structural design as the foundations, for example. Despite the politically favorable climate, the Italian companies were apparently unable to establish a significant commercial network in Siam, partially due to a lack of support from the Italian government.35

• 36 Carlo Allegri, Relazione delle opere compiute dal 1890 al 1911 dal Dipartimento dei Lavori Pubblic (...)

15With the arrival of Compressol in Bangkok for the construction of the foundation posts of the Throne Hall and the signature in 1907 of the treaty between France and Siam, defining the long-contested boundaries between Siam and Cambodia, French reinforced-concrete companies were able to broach the Siamese market. Their success and spread were also supported by the assignments received by other Frenchmen operating within the Sanitation Department. Suppliers and consultants to help with carrying out the works were also found through French networks of professionals and companies in France or in Cochinchine. The presence of an “Indochinese connection” proved the complexity of the channels of a colonial economy driving the flow of European cultures, businesses, and goods in South East Asia. Trade between Siam and Cochinchine was guaranteed from 1896 thanks to the Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine. Indochina supplied much of the cement imported by Siam (a quantity of 16,000 tons a year by 1910).36

• 37 “La décoration, exécutée entièrement en ciment armé a été étudiée par les ingénieurs français du s (...)
• 38 “Mr. de la Mahotiére, Bangkok city engineer, told me it was urgent. Every year in early November, (...)
• 39 “For the cement, I am expecting price information from Ciment de l’Indochine. […] Did Messrs. Rich (...)
• 40 “If I need 15 mm or 8 mm iron bar, I can get it in Saigon,” Letter from Monsieur Bénabenq to the S (...)
• 41 “There are probably European personnel in Saigon who have already been employed by Messrs. Richaud (...)

16Attesting to the rivalry between the French and Italians, the journal Le Béton armé prefaced its presentation of the projects implementing the Hennebique system in Siam by specifying that the French engineers of the Sanitation Department were independent from the Italians working at the Dusit Park, “who work for a different department, headed by an Italian engineer.”37 The rigid distinction deriving from the division of duties within the government also corresponds to a quite marked difference in the attitude of French and Italian professionals towards the introduction into Siam of the reinforced concrete technique. This divergence is evident from the documents relating to the French reinforced concrete bridge selected by King Rama V for the 1908 celebrations of the kingdom.38 It was to be located three kilometers from Bangkok; to be built over the Klong Mahanak, it was made using the Hennebique system and measured a span of 22 meters (fig. 8). The project was carried out by the Société Anonyme de Fondations par Compression Mécanique du Sol on behalf of the City Engineer Robert de la Mahotiére and was part of a larger assignment to the Société Anonyme de Fondations par Compression Mécanique du Sol which included two other bridges: one over the Rajadamri canal (with a span of 13 meters) and one on the Pache Chine road (with a span of 10 meters). To find materials and labor, Monsieur Bénabenq, a professional working in Bangkok for the Société de Fondations, suggested contacting neighboring Saigon. He praised the performance of the Indochinese cement,39 emphasized its affordability, and advised his central office to order the materials for the bridge over the Klong Mahanak from suppliers in Saigon.40 Moreover, he requested that European workers skilled in reinforced concrete construction be hired in Saigon.41

• 42 “The architectural design of the bridges will be modernist, appropriate to reinforced concrete con (...)
• 43 P. G., “Le Béton armé et les Ponts au Siam,” op. cit. (note 27), p. 69.

17Correspondence between the Société Anonyme de Fondations par Compression Mécanique du Sol and the Hennebique offices in Paris mainly concerned the planning of foundations, complicated by two factors: the softness of the soil and the absence of a Compressol machine (it arrived in Bangkok later in 1908). With regard to the architectural design, in all three projects the French were careful to avoid eclecticism and the Italian style. They specified “no imitation, no stone, no bricks, no Italian style.”42 “The architectural design of the bridges will be modernist, appropriate to reinforced concrete construction,” wrote Mr. Bénabenq to the Société Anonyme de Fondations par Compression Mécanique du Sol in Paris. In any case, the journalist writing about the bridge over the Klong Mahanak for “Béton armé” later pointed out: “The Siamese are very fond of decoration, but not the way the French generally understand it. They like artistic decorations. The King expressed a desire for this bridge to be ornamented lavishly. To satisfy this desire, the Société de Fondations had to order glazed stoneware decorations from France. It took four months for the supplier to deliver the pieces and, unfortunately, the ribbon was cut on the bridge before the structure had been decorated. Moreover, the pieces were broken in shipping, and we feared they would be unusable. The Siamese are artists, however: thanks to their patience and skill, we were finally able to mount the decorations. It took some trouble, but we were able to use the pieces for the effect we wanted from them.”43

• 44 Christel Frapier and Simon Vaillant, “The organization of the Hennebique firm in the countries of (...)
• 45 “Due to the unusually poor quality of the soil, and unable to make Compressol pilings because no m (...)
• 46 “The basemat and foundation are protected from corrosion from the waters, which frequently undergo (...)

18The first Frenchmen to begin doing business in Bangkok, alongside Compressol, were the Hennebique agents in Saigon, Richaud and Papa. They were among the few representatives in Asia of a company that could rely on a widespread presence in Africa and in the Americas.44 Between 1909 and 1910, engineers Richaud and Papa were engaged to build two reinforced concrete bridges in cooperation with the Société de Fondations: one in Bangkok, called “Pont du Siam,” and another over the Klong Mahanak, outside the city. From a technical point of view, the bridge over the Klong Mahanak was the most challenging structure made by the French. All of the building had to be done by Siamese labor, because the Europeans had already left the country. The decoration was 100% reinforced concrete, but the structure was composite, with timbers “trapped in a layer of plain concrete 20 cm thick.”45 The slab and foundation were protected from corrosion by water with masks in reinforced concrete, built within cofferdams, which went down to three meters below the lowest water.46

• 47 Mario Tamagno, Elenco cronologico di lavori compiuti dal prof. Mario Tamagno, Architetto, in propr (...)

19In 1910, after only three years of activity, all traces of Hennebique and Compressol in Siam disappeared, although the Italian and French professionals recruited by the government continued to be active for another two decades. While there is no documentation regarding the construction firms involved in the projects carried out during this time and supervised by the Italians from the Department of Public Works, it is possible to see how the cooperation between Italian and French professionals continued over the years on certain projects requiring high-level technical skills. Certain projects the architect Mario Tamagno included in his list of the Siamese works47 belong to this period. Five of them were designed in cooperation with French professionals: the Mansri bridge (fig. 9) on the Bamrung Muang Road, with F. Didier (1909); a bridge over the Lot canal, close to Wat Bunsiri (1916) and a bridge near the Wat Sudhat (1915), with engineer Belhomme; a bridge in the city of Nakorn Phatom (1918) and one over the Phitsathien Kut Mai canal in Bangkok with C. Baudart.

• 48 Siam Cement Co. Ltd, The Siam Cement Co. Ltd., Bangkok, Publisher Siam Cement Co. Ltd, 1957; Siam (...)
• 49 Emilio Giovanni Gollo, “Report on Siam Portland Cement, 7 June 1909,” cited in Ian Brown, Elite an (...)
• 50 Turin (Italy), Politecnico di Torino, Dipartimento dei Sistemi Edilizi e Territoriali, Porcheddu A (...)

20While the Throne Hall was under construction, a group of European and Siamese entrepreneurs suggested the formation of a society to promote the installation of a cement manufacturing unit in Siam.48 The report presenting the company bears the signature of the engineer Emilio Giovanni Gollo.49 Emilio Giovanni Gollo’s career in Bangkok was also linked to a series of works that used reinforced structures to varying extents. Some of the constructions, like the reinforced concrete stands completed in 1922 for the Turf Club in Bangkok (fig. 10), explore the formal potential of the new system. Part of a program expanding the King’s private race course, they implemented protruding 8-metre beams, poured in a series on site and subsequently installed at the course. Even after Emilio Giovanni Gollo returned to Italy, his career as a specialist in reinforced concrete using the Hennebique system continued. In 1926, he appeared in court as an expert witness for the Porcheddu Company50 in a lawsuit related to a tank the company built in 1912 in the Port of Tripoli (Libya).

• 51 Francesca B. Filippi, Da Torino a Bangkok, op. cit. (note 1), p. 107–162.
• 52 Ugo Carughi and Ermanno Guida, Alfredo Cottrau, 1839-1898: l’architettura del ferro nell’Italia de (...)
• 53 Vilma Fasoli, “The National Ironworks of Savigliano on the Mediterranean Rim,” op. cit. (note 1), (...)
• 54 Ivan Balbo, “La Società Nazionale Officine Savigliano,” in Sandro Soave (ed.), Storia di Saviglian (...)
• 55 Ivan Balbo states that “As early as 1918, the Board of Directors of snos pointed out how slowly it (...)

21Italian architects, builders and engineers in Siam began fairly early to disseminate structures made of reinforced concrete construction according to the Hennebique51 system, starting in 1907. However, in the field of steel structures, they worked less rapidly and extensively. Several scholars of Italy’s economic history during its rise to industrial prominence have drawn attention to the difficulties encountered by the mechanical industry—and the steel industry along with it—in attempts to enter foreign markets. Throughout the period from 1871 to 1885, these endeavors, already slowed by domestic problems such as the rise in costs of raw materials and labor, were further hindered by the applications of customs duties which penalized Italian production, giving foreign companies an advantage. The legislation in force allowed foreign manufacturers to export awnings, iron bridges, and girders to Italy at half price.52 The main Italian companies specializing in the construction of metallic structures in Italy during this phase were Impresa Industriale Italiana di Costruzioni Metalliche (hereinafter iiicm), founded by the engineer Alfredo Cottrau in 1870 in Castellamare di Stabia (Naples), and Società Nazionale Officine Savigliano (hereinafter snos) established in 1880 in Turin. They were both companies with a combination of Italian and Belgian capital. iiicm was backed by Finet Charles & Cie. of Brussels and, from 1889, had taken on the role of Italian agency for Eiffel folding bridges, while snos was backed by the company of Ernest Rolin, an industrialist from Braine-le-Comte and chairman of the Belgian metals and coal stock exchange. Relations between the two companies were fiercely competitive until 1898 when, with the death of A. Cottrau, iiicm closed. Until then, the international fame of the works created by this company and the numerous international awards given to A. Cottrau had overshadowed the activity of snos. From 1898, the production of snos was divided between two plants: one in Savigliano (province of Cuneo) specialized in the production of railway material and the construction of metal framing structures, and the other in Turin, linked to the electromechanical sector. The debut of snos on the foreign market dates back to 1883–1884, the year when it was commissioned to design and build the railway cars for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. In the field of framing metal structures, until just before the First World War, snos business had been limited to a couple of Mediterranean countries (Albania and Greece) or associated with Ernest Rolin’s close relations in Central and Eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria and Russia).53 During the First World War, snos thrived, having won defense contracts linked to the supply of ammunition. In 1920, the reserves and amortizations set aside during the war54 allowed an increase in capital (from 15 to 30 million Italian lire). The consistent profits made had been reinvested in perfecting and expanding the industrial structures, allowing a more marked diversification of snos products. From the early 1920s, snos was also committed to making changes in its business strategy, in an effort to limit its dependence on public commissions, felt to be risky due to the considerable delays with which the government respected the contractual agreements.55 The company sought projects aimed at the international market, with openings extending beyond the Mediterranean countries to those of the Far East and South America.

• 56 “L’attività delle Officine di Savigliano all’estero (executions and projects),” Bollettino Tecnico (...)
• 57 The first solution envisages a structure with five 90-metres spans made of simple triangle reticul (...)
• 58 In 1902, after the Boxer Rebellion, the Chinese Empire granted Italy the colony of Tientsin (now T (...)
• 59 Its main clients were Empresas Electricas Associadas of Lima (1920) and La Companhia Electrosideru (...)
• 60 In Egypt, the snos built bridges over the Nile in Samanoud and Benha (1928) and the electrificatio (...)

22This reform in business policy became effective in 1920 with participation in the tender for the construction of a rail and road bridge to be built in Siam over the Menam Chow Phja River.56 snos offered the Siam Railway Ministry two options: one consisting of two separate bridges, side by side, and the other a bridge with a single span.57 The following year (1921), the company participated in the bid for tender held by the Management of the Peking-Hankou Railway for the construction of the railway bridge over the Yellow River (China) (fig. 11). The railway ranked the snos bid fifth, in a field of 63 foreign bidders. On subsequent occasions, such as the invitation to submit a bid to the Siamese railways in 1921 for the construction of 18 bridges (for a total of 1,200 tons) or a 1924 call for tender issued by the International Commission overseeing foreign licenses in Tientsin (China)58 for the construction of a new opening bridge over the River Hai-Ho (fig. 12), snos achieved promising results. However, the company was not assigned the mandate for construction. snos had demonstrated its ability to convert experiences acquired in the military sector during the First World War into applications suited for use in civilian environments, and had developed greater skills in terms of promoting and advertising of its activity, publishing the journal entitled Bollettino Tecnico Savigliano in 1926. Nevertheless, it still faced fierce competition from other European firms with a longer history of operations in the Far East. By contrast, the high level of specialization it had reached in the construction of hangars for airships and seaplanes, of daring railway bridges, point equipment, pipelines and tanks for electric and hydroelectric plants, combined with ongoing friendships with representatives of public administration, facilitated business relationships with Latin American countries59 and Egypt60 at that time.

• 61 J. L de Lanessan, L’expansion coloniale de la France. Étude économique, politique et géographique (...)
• 62 Arnold Wright and Oliver T. Breakspear, Twentieth century impressions of Siam: its history, people (...)
• 63 Bernard Lemoine, “Eiffel e il canale di Panama,” Casabella, 1988, nos. 542–543, p. 88–95; Laurent (...)
• 64 Doumer’s programme included a 1680-metre iron bridge (commonly known as Doumer Bridge), built over (...)
• 65 Laurent Weill, “Travaux publics et colonisation,” op. cit. (note 63), p. 289.
• 66 Ibid., p. 293.
• 67 A. A. Pouyanne, “Les travaux publics de l’Indochine,” Société de géographie de Hanoi. Inventaire g (...)
• 68 The company was established by engineer Arthur Dorman and industrialist Albert de Lande Long after (...)
• 69 The snos photographic archives are divided between the State Archive of Turin and the Central Libr (...)

23So far, our research indicates that the bridge over the River Menam Chow Phja, built between 1929 and 1932 in Bangkok, is the only significant accomplishment of snos in the Far East. Its late arrival on the Far Eastern scene cannot entirely be blamed on the difficulties faced by the Italian government in supporting its businesses in more ambitious projects on the international market. Another factor was the strain to which the Kingdom of Siam was subjected by the colonial economic strategies pursued by Great Britain and France. Britain had been established in the territories west of Siam (Malaysia and India) for many years, and France had colonized the Indochinese peninsula. The two imperial powers had forced Siamese foreign policy to move with extreme caution. The pressure exerted by France61 to draw Siam into its orbit, in competition with that exerted by Great Britain, which required more effective resistance, had ended in 189662 with the Franco-British agreement recognizing Siam’s status as an independent kingdom. The Siamese government’s work to develop the national rail network was a consequence of this agreement. From the economic and commercial point of view, the railway was a vital connection between the markets of Malaysia, served by the railway opened by the British in 1877, and the French markets in Indochina, reached by rail lines the colonial governor Paul Doumer63 planned to improve and strengthen, starting in of 1897.64 The experiences acquired by Italian firm snos prior to 1918 clearly put it in the minor leagues, underequipped to compete with giants like the French corporations Daydé & Pillé and the Eiffel Company, operating in Indochina, or the British Borneo Company Limited, which had begun operating in 1856 between the islands of Borneo, Singapore, and Hong Kong, in addition to having extensive operations in Siam. As of the 1920s, the relaunch of the works approved by the French government in Indochina had revived operations undertaken in 1892 to save the prestigious Eiffel Company from financial ruin in the wake of the Panama Canal scandal.65 From 1893, work had been carried out in Indochina to ensure important commissions to the new Société de Constructions de Levallois-Perret, set up after Eiffel’s resignation from the Board of Directors. In 1922, having survived the recession generated during the war by the rise in the price of iron, the new company had been assigned the construction of the 630-km railway line linking Saigon to the Siamese border.66 Although the folding iron bridges invented and made by Eiffel had guaranteed the company the construction of most of Indochina’s infrastructure up until then, in 1926 the government investment plan drawn up by Albert Armand Pouyanne,67 chief engineer of public works in Indochina and inspector general from 1921, concentrated on adopting cheaper construction techniques, such as the use of reinforced concrete. In 1924, the management of Société de Constructions de Levallois-Perret converted Eiffel’s traditional steel production to reinforced concreted, setting up a special department for works in Indochina. This decision prevented the French company from coping with the great recession of the 1930s. Conversely, the financial policy launched in 1926 by Italy, during the early years of Fascist government, had favored the stability of the currency and earned the confidence of the international banks, which readily made loans to big Italian companies. In a context of international economic stagnation, the financial reform guaranteed greater penetration of the foreign market by Italian companies and probably also strengthened the positions of snos in international tenders. The contract for the Phra Phutta Yodfa Bridge, also known as the Memorial Bridge, for which snos was qualified joint first with the prestigious English firm Dorman Long,68 falls within this context. The tender for its construction was won by the English company but the Siamese government ordered that the works be carried out under the supervision of Italian technicians from snos. The archives of the Savigliano company contain a series of photographs documenting the on-site construction phases. They show that unskilled labor was recruited mainly at local level.69

• 70 See here the contribution of Francesca B. Filippi.
• 71 The Chakri dynasty came to the throne of Siam in 1782. The first king belonging to this dynasty wa (...)
• 72 The statue was created by the Italian sculptor Corrado Feroci (known in Thailand by the name of Si (...)

24This bridge is of particular importance, due to the two roles it plays. First, it symbolizes aspects of Siam’s political and economic history. Secondly, it is outstanding due to the techniques employed in its construction. On one hand, it represents the final leg of the vast programmed for the transformation of Siam’s transport system (from river to land, with a road and rail system) launched by the kingdom in 1863.70 On the other, its construction continues a tradition that began in 1894, when King Rama VI decreed that a new bridge would be built to celebrate every anniversary of the Chakri dynasty.71 The ribbon was cut on the Memorial Bridge, on April 6, 1932, and the statue of Rama I, 72 founder of the Chakri dynasty, was unveiled. The event marked not only the commencement of celebrations for the 150th-anniversary of the Kingdom of Siam, but also the start of the uprising that, several weeks later (24 June 1932), would lead to the outbreak of the Siamese revolution, the coup d’état, the formation of the first constitution and the voluntary exile of king Rama VII. When the dynasty’s anniversary celebration was being planned, back in 1928, the Siamese government had issued call for a tender inviting Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, the United States and Italy to make bids. The documents imposed two main requirements: the bridge could not interfere with the navigability of the river, and the structure had to be monumental in nature. A staff of snos engineers had travelled to Bangkok to survey the site, and to study the materials available, the organization of the site, and the recruitment of local labor. These initial inspections immediately revealed huge difficulties, including the feeble load-bearing capacity of the marshy land, a strong river current, and the river’s depth (about 20 meters). For these reasons the company designed a bridge with a span of 228 meters and a weight in iron of 1,430 tons, supported by two hollow pilings made of reinforced concrete (figs. 13 and 14)

• 73 Vittorio Marchis, Domenico Borini (1861–1919), op. cit. (note 23), p. 21–52.
• 74 “Ponte commemorativo sul fiume Menam Chow Phja a Bangkok,” Bollettino Tecnico Savigliano, nos. 4–5 (...)

25The proposed structure would neither block the heavy boat traffic on the river, nor interfere with the flow so much as to expose the flat banks to the risk of flooding. To strengthen and stabilize the bridge support pilings, it became necessary to construct reinforced concrete foundation posts which went down to a depth of 30 meters below the water level. For this phase of construction, we are fairly sure there was a close collaboration between snos and the Fratelli Borini Construction Firm,73 endowed with extensive experience in the construction of foundations using the compressed air caisson system. From the time of its founding, up to 1903, snos built over 180,000 cubic meters of foundations using this technique and produced tanks with a total of approximately 6,000 tons of iron. To meet the needs of the tender, the Italian engineers had drawn up an overall plan which, in addition to the bridge, included work on the river banks, roads and access ramps because (figs. 15, 16 and 17) “The arrangement of the masses and their proportions had to harmonize with the architectural lines of the bridge, blend in with the local style and enhance the commemorative monument that was to be erected on the access from the eastern side.”74

• 75 Kridayuth Chompooming, Wacharapong Prasarnklieo, Sayan Sirimontri and Suphasit Sirisak, “Structura (...)

28For the metallic structure of the bridge itself, snos had studied four possible alternatives, including a symmetrical revolving bridge (rejected because it was too expensive), an asymmetrical revolving bridge (rejected because the supporting pilings would have interfered with river traffic), and a lifting bridge (rejected because the lifting mechanisms would have been too expensive). The most cost-effective option turned out to be a drawbridge with two mobile arms which leaving a useful space of 42 meters for transit. Each arm was made up of six one-meter-thick solid-wall supporting girders, the weight of which was reduced by using high strength steel. The lateral spans would not have exceeded 85 meters with a maximum height of 11 meters and would have been built with solid tank walls to considerably reduce maintenance costs. The road level comprised space for two tram lines and pavements on the sides, with an overhang of 2.50 meters. Extensive commitment was required for the design of the lifting systems needed to open the central span of the bridge. These systems were based on electromechanical devices equipped with a series of controllers which activated warning lights and buzzers to guarantee simple, safe bridge maneuvers. Among the 18 projects presented, snos was assigned joint first place with that presented by Great Britain. Of the 23 executive designs and the technical report presented by snos, we have the reproductions published by the Bollettino Tecnico Savigliano in 1929 and several photographs taken during the site phases. For safety reasons linked to the considerable increase in road traffic, in 1983 the arms of the bridge were blocked. Since 2003, the bridge’s structural integrity has been monitored by sensors (fig. 22).75