Contact info
LGC – BATir, Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Civil Engineer, professor of structural and civil engineering
Avenue F.D Roosevelt 50, CP 194/02, B-1050 Brussels (post address)
Avenue A. Buyl 87, C3, B-1050 Brussels (offices) Bernard.Espion@ulb.ac.be
Research interest
History of Construction in Belgium (19th-20th Centuries), with emphasis on concrete and steel structures, construction materials, biographies of engineers, bridges, thin concrete shells; Engineering Heritage.
Current and past research projects in the field of Construction History
Valorisation of the archives of the contractor Blaton (Brussels): archival research and publication. AAM project 2014-2016, with prof. M. Provost (ULB) and prof. R. Devos (ULB).
Supervisor of the Ph.D. research of Armande Hellebois Theoretical and experimental studies on early reinforced concrete structures. Contribution to the analysis of the bearing capacity of the Hennebique system, 2009-2013.
Representative publications in the field of Construction History
B. Espion, ‘The founding events of prestressed concrete in Belgium seen through the Blaton archives’, in: B. Bowen et al (eds.), Proceedings of the fifth International Congress on Construction History. ICCH2015: Construction History Society of America. Chicago, vol. 2, 2015, pp. 41-48.
B. Espion, M. Provost, O. Bastin and P. Bouillard, ‘Three historic railway bridges in Katanga, DR Congo’, Bridge Engineering (Proceedings of the ICE),Vol. 168, N°BE 2, June 2015, pp. 173-180 .
A. Hellebois and B. Espion, ‘The role of the Belgian engineer Paul Christophe on the development of reinforced concrete at the turn of the 20th century’, Beton und Stahlbetonbau, Vol. 108, N°12, December 2013, pp. 888-897.
Denoël, J.-F., Espion, B., Hellebois, A. and M. Provost, M. (eds), ‘Histoires de Béton Armé. Patrimoine, Durabilité et Innovations’, Brussels: FEBELCEM et FABI, 2013.
B. Espion, ‘The Vierendeel bridges over the Albert Canal, Belgium – their significance in the story of brittle failures’, Steel Construction, Vol.5, N°4, November 2012, pp. 238-243.
