Henri Vidal (10 February 1924 in

Draguignan Draguignan (; oc, Draguinhan) is a commune in the Var department in the administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (formerly Provence), southeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department and self-proclaimed "capital of Ar ...

- 29 November 2007 in

Porquerolles Porquerolles (; oc, Porcairòlas), also known as the Île de Porquerolles, is an island in the Îles d'Hyères, Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. Its land area is and in 2004, its population has benn about 200. Porquerolles, the larges ...

) is a French civil engineer, known for the invention, in 1963 of ''Terre Armée'' or reinforced earth also known as

Mechanically stabilized earth Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE or reinforced soil) is soil constructed with artificial reinforcing. It can be used for retaining walls, bridge abutments, seawalls, and dikes. Although the basic principles of MSE have been used throughout his ...

. Vidal entered the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in 1944 and graduated from the

École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in 1949. Vidal had the hope of becoming an architect, and so he enrolled at the fine arts school,

École des Beaux-Arts de Paris The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Sciences ...

while continuing to work as an engineer in the maintenance department

Électricité de France Électricité de France S.A. (literally ''Electricity of France''), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational electric utility company, largely owned by the French state. Headquartered in Paris, with €71.2 billion in revenues in 2 ...

. After graduating from the

in 1961, he opened an architectural practice the same year, while continuing to work as an engineer at Fougerolles. As an architect, he collaborated with to design the Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain in Nice., as well as his property at Domaine de la Courtade in Porquerolles, which now houses the Carmignac Foundation. After five years of establishing the theory for his process and of experiments on scale models, he filed the patent for reinforced earth in 1963.

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French, architect and civil engineer Mr. Henri Vidal, pictured during his press conference
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vidal, Henri 1924 births 2007 deaths French civil engineers