Hasta La Ideas

News: Rem Koolhaas’ OMA has won the competition to design a new bridge across the river Garonne in Bordeaux with plans for a 44-metre-wide structure that will accommodate traffic and pedestrians, but could also be used for hosting events.

Set to be completed in 2018, the Pont Jean-Jacques Bosc will link the municipalities of Bègles and Floriac. A pedestrian promenade will take up the largest section of the bridge, but there will also be dedicated lanes for cars, public transport and bicycles that can be closed during events.

OMA worked with engineers WSP and landscape architect Michel Desvigne to develop the concept for the bridge, and the designers hope it will become a popular public space for the city.

“The bridge itself is not the ‘event’ in the city, but a platform that can accommodate events of the city,” said OMA project leader Clément Blanchet. “We wanted to provide the simplest expression – the least technical, least lyrical, but the most concise and effective structural solution.”

The project will be completed as part of the Euratlantique, a city-wide development covering an area of 738 hectares.

“It is an extraordinary architectural gesture, said Vincent Feltesse, president of the Urban Community of Bordeaux. “More than a bridge, it is an urban planning intervention in the heart of the Euratlantique project.”

Here’s the full announcement from OMA:

OMA has won the international competition to design the Pont Jean-Jacques Bosc, the sixth bridge across the river Garonne in Bordeaux and the first bridge design to be realised by OMA. The selection committee included the mayor of Bordeaux, Alain Juppé; completion is scheduled for 2018.

Positioned at the heart of the Euratlantique project, Pont Jean-Jacques Bosc provides a link between the municipalities of Bègles and Floriac. But more than simply connecting two points of land separated by water, the bridge itself also offers a generous new public space in the city.

Vincent Feltesse, president of the Urban Community of Bordeaux: “It is an extraordinary architectural gesture. More than a bridge, it is an urban planning intervention in the heart of the Euratlantique project.”

Its considerable 44m by 545m expanse, a continuous surface stretching well beyond the banks of the river, seamlessly connects to the land. The gently sloping surface enables a pedestrian promenade while still allowing the necessary clearance for boats beneath. All traffic modes – including private cars, public transport, bicycles and foot traffic – are accommodated by its width, with the largest allowance devoted to pedestrians.

Clément Blanchet, director of OMA France: “The bridge itself is not the ‘event’ in the city, but a platform that can accommodate events of the city. We wanted to provide the simplest expression – the least technical, least lyrical, but the most concise and effective structural solution.”

The project was developed in collaboration with engineers WSP, the landscape architect Michel Desvigne, the consultant EGIS, and the light design agency Lumières Studio.

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bridge competition appeared first on Dezeen.

This Corten steel footbridge arches across a new bypass in Spain to connect the small town of Sant Pere Sacarrera with a network of woodland pathways (+ slideshow).

Spanish civil engineers Alfa Polaris designed the footbridge to link two banks that are both at different levels, creating a safe pedestrian crossing that doesn’t disrupt traffic flow.

“The client not only wanted to provide pedestrians a pleasant user experience, but also carry out an attractive design that would improve the visual experience of the drivers,” said the design team.

Formed of two truss girders, the asymmetric bridge is made from pre-weathered steel that will resist any further corrosion. The deck comprises a row of timber slats.

The northern end of the bridge is positioned higher and features a zig-zagging ramp to make up for the slope, while the southern side is a square platform.

“[This] creates a sort of balcony piazza that provides users great views over the town and its surroundings,” said the engineers, who previously designed a similar Corten steel footbridge elsewhere Spain.

Low-maintenance LED lamps light the bridge at night.

Photography is by Xavier Font.

Here’s some more information from the designers:

Sant Pere Sacarrera Footbridge

This footbridge over the new bypass of Sant Pere Sacarrera is part of an Y-shaped itinerary that links the town centre with two footpaths that give access to a forest area and were interrupted by the new road.

The client not only wanted to provide pedestrians a pleasant user experience, but also carry out an attractive design that would improve the visual experience of the drivers, avoiding, however, luxurious solutions.

The aim was to get a proposal with reduced whole life cost and environmental burdens. For this reason the design team proposed a Corten steel truss girder structure – very efficient from the structural point of view and whose rusted skin protects itself from further corrosion – for the deck; the use of LED lamps – with long life span and energy efficiency – for the street lighting over the footbridge; and polymeric timber – with almost no maintenance – for the decking over the structure.

The design of the new footbridge was strongly conditioned by the asymmetric shape of the cross section of the road trench, marked by the different level of the two banks. A footbridge composed by two elements was proposed. The main one is a two span continuous deck formed by two Warren truss girders with variable depth, linked together at bottom flanges by transversal beams. The latter, in turn, give support to the variable wide polymeric timber decking through longitudinal joists.

The main span of this element crosses the road, while the second one remains integrated to the north abutment, where a zig-zag ramp raise its level and therefore helps reduce the longitudinal slope of this element.

The second element is a square platform integrated to the south abutment, which creates a sort of balcony piazza that provides users great views over the town and its surroundings.

The main girders have a slight curved shape in elevation and their depth varies, being maximum at the north end – where the deck width is minimum – and minimum at its south end – where the deck width is maximum.

Since the upper chord of the truss has no bracing, in order to prevent it from lateral buckling, the designer improved the torsional stiffness of the bottom chord by giving it a hollow box shape, reinforced the lateral stiffness of the web members and increased the width of the top chord, to which an inverted U shape was given. This allows enough room for the lights to be embedded in it.

High efficiency low maintenance LED technology lamps were installed on each of the bays of the truss. This solution not only provides an agreeable street lighting along the crossing, but, by means of the combination of light and shadows, in the night it highlights the beauty of the structure.

Project name: Sant Pere Sacarrera Footbridge
Location: Mediona, Catalonia, Spain
Design: 2007-2008
Construction: 2011-2012
Client: Diputació de Barcelona
Concept design and engineering: Xavier Font, Alfa Polaris
General contractor: Excavaciones y Construcciones Benjumea, S.A
Structural system: Continuous Corten steel Warren truss girders

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from Corten steel by Alfa Polaris appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Dutch studio NEXT architects has won a competition to design a pedestrian bridge for Changsha, China, with plans for a wavy structure based on the continuous form of a Möbius strip.

NEXT Architects designed the 150-metre bridge to span the Dragon King Harbour River in Changsha’s Meixi Lake district – a 6.5 million square-metre development masterplanned by Kohn Pedersen Fox and being built from scratch in the south west of the city.

The structure will comprise a sequence of undulating steel ribbons that combine to create a never-ending surface, just like a Möbius strip.

“The construction with the intersecting connections is based on the principal of the Möbius ring,” said Michel Schreinemachers of NEXT Architects, who previously completed a bridge in the Netherlands with different routes for pedestrians and cyclists.

Architect John van de Water says the form is also intended to reference traditional Chinese crafts. “It refers to a Chinese knot that comes from an ancient decorative Chinese folk art,” he explained.

The bridge will create three different routes across the water, including one that reaches a height of 24 metres to offer views of the harbour, the city and the surrounding mountains. Lighting fixtures will highlight the profile of the structure after dark.

Construction is set to begin in 2014.

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wins Chinese bridge competition appeared first on Dezeen.

News: two Portuguese architects want to transform Porto’s iconic Maria Pia Bridge, built in 1877 by Gustave Eiffel, into a monument by moving the disused structure from its present location on the River Douro to the city centre.

Designed by the French engineer of Eiffel Tower fame, the wrought-iron railway bridge has been out of use since 1991. However, as one of Porto’s most recognisable structures, Pedro Bandeira and Pedro Nuno Ramalho believe it could help the city establish its international identity.

“The relocated D. Maria Pia Bridge would bring a new monumentality to the city,” reads the architects’ proposal. “The bridge would be a monument of the deindustrialisation, where the materiality of the nineteenth century gives place to the contemporary immateriality.”

Bandeira and Ramalho entered the proposal in a competition seeking ideas to revitalise the Aurifícia area in central Porto. Although it didn’t win, the architects insist it could still become a catalyst for urban regeneration.

“By relocating [the bridge] to the centre of the city on a higher position, [it] would regain visibility but mostly another meaning, since it is released of the need of being useful,” they said.

According to the plans, the bridge’s latticed girder structure could be easily dismantled. It could then be re-erected over a period of five months, with a budget of less than €10 million (£8.5 million).

Local journalist Ana Laureano Alves believes the project addresses some of the most important issues facing contemporary architecture.

“Although it may seem extreme in a first moment, I believe that it is an intelligent proposal,” she told Dezeen. “On one hand it is a call for attention of the failure of the urban regeneration policies and, on the other, it is a provocation to the contemporary approach on monuments and history.”

The bridge currently spans the River Douro in the south-east of the city. With a height of 60 metres and a 353-metre span, it was once the longest single-arch span in the world.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Relocation of the D. Maria Pia Bridge

Two architects, Pedro Bandeira and Pedro Nuno Ramalho proposed the relocation of the Eiffel’s D. Maria Pia Bridge to the city centre, exposing its actual uselessness (not in use since 1991) and drastically changing the skyline of Oporto.

This proposal was a response for a call of ideas for the urban regeneration of the block Aurifícia in the city of Oporto, Portugal, promoted by the Portuguese Council of Architects. As it seems obvious, it did not win. If at a first glance it looks like as an ironic proposal of nonsense humour, it has also a deeper meaning. This strong gesture would establish a particular identity of the city, unique, bizarre and appealing. It may seem absurd, but in some way it just reflects the absurd that the city already is: the decadent urban landscape that invites the tourists to photograph the building in ruins, abandoned warehouses and factories; a scenario that no urban regeneration policy was able to reverse.

Since 1991 the D. Maria Pia Bridge is not at use. With the two new bridges over the Douro River – the Infante Bridge and the S. João Bridge – it lost its scale and dignity; it is hidden and forgotten. By relocating it to the centre of the city on a higher position, the bridge would regain visibility but mostly another meaning, since it is released of the need of being useful. The proposal rescues the beautiful expression “work-of-art” used in some languages by the engineers to refer to the construction of bridges. The originality of the solution would contribute, in a first moment, for increasing tourism and consequently the development of other services. Aside from that, it is more significant the boost of the city’s identity, nourishing the self-esteem of its inhabitants, the fundamental actors on the revitalisation of the city. Astonishingly, the project would be easily executed, both in the constructive and in economical terms. The lattice girder structure of the bridge is light and easily disassembled. It would require around five months for the entire process of construction and a budget of less than 10 million of euros, eight times less than the costs of Koolhaas’ Casa da Música, located in the vicinity. As the Eiffel Tower, the relocated D. Maria Pia Bridge would have a significative impact, contributing for promoting the image of the city worldwide.

The relocated D. Maria Pia Bridge would bring a new monumentality to the city. New, considering it is far from the classical sense of the expression, as of institutionalisation of History. It is a transgressive monumentality that aims for its permanent actualisation meaning, reflecting the present conscious of its fragility. The Bridge would be a monument of the deindustrialisation, where the materiality of the 19th century gives place to the contemporary immateriality, where there is no space for a bridge that connects just two places. The bridge died, but it died standing, like a tree.

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Porto’s Maria Pia Bridge appeared first on Dezeen.

Curving steel columns morph into angular arches around the etched concrete body of this bridge by New Zealand architects Warren and Mahoney over a road, railway and waterway in Auckland (+ slideshow).

Named Point Resolution, the pedestrian bridge connects the coastline with a stretch of headland on the opposite side of the bay. Warren & Mahoney designed the structure to replace an existing 1930s bridge, which had become structurally unsound.

The body of the bridge is framed by three sinuous arcs, which branch out from the steel columns that elevate the structure. “The steel supporting the deck was designed to pay homage to the original bridge by echoing its three arches,” explained the architects.

A curved concrete deck was modelled on the hull of a ship and features a series of etched patterns by artist Henriata Nicholas, designed to look like delicate water ripples.

These patterns continue across the angular glass balustrades that line the edges of the walkway, supporting handrails on both sides.

The architects compare the delicate patterns and curving forms with the nearby Parnell Baths – a 1950s structure that features a decorative mosaic mural. “[The baths] offered a clear language of angular lines meeting sinuous form and became a key motivator of the language and geometry of the design,” they added.

Warren & Mahoney were also the architects for the newest terminal at Wellington International Airport, which topped the transport category at the 2011 Inside awards. Watch an interview we filmed with the architects »

Other bridges completed recently include a Corten steel river crossing in Norway and a pivoting apostrophe-shaped bridge in the UK.

See more bridges on Dezeen »
See more architecture in New Zealand »

Photography is by Patrick Reynolds.

Here’s a project description from Warren & Mahoney:

Point Resolution Bridge

Auckland Council invited Warren and Mahoney to provide conceptual ideas for a replacement pedestrian bridge connecting Auckland’s waterfront to a prominent headland. The existing bridge, built in the 1930s was suffering severe structural fatigue and with the imminent electrification of Auckland’s rail network, the bridge needed to be raised.

The council, recognising the importance of the location, both in terms of its prominence along the waterfront and its proximity to the historic salt water Parnell Baths, wanted something sculptural, elegant and iconic. The baths, designed in the early 1950s in the International Modern style of lido bathing pools with a mosaic mural by artist James Turkington, with its fluid and abstracted swimmers, offered a clear language of angular lines meeting sinuous form and became a key motivator of the language and geometry of the design.

The location of the bridge at the edge of the harbour also provided obvious nautical allusions, both historic and contemporary – the waka and the super yacht.

It was determined that the bridge would be formed using three primary elements:

» A simple but sculpted and hull-like concrete deck would extend from the headland and protrude out into the harbour. This would in turn be cradled by a highly expressive steel armature or exoskeleton which sinuously referenced the language of the baths beyond. A simple cantilevered glass balustrade, co-planar with the concrete deck would provide barrier protection.

» The steel supporting the deck was designed to pay homage to the original bridge by echoing its three arches. The arches begin under the deck as diamond shaped columns which bifurcate to form the arches.

» The deck is formed with three separate twin-celled post tensioned precast concrete sections joined with in-situ stitches. The deck is supported by the steel armature through discrete pin connections.

Artist Henriata Nicholas developed a pungarungaru(water ripple) pattern over the concrete and glass surfaces. It was important that the patterning was delicately completed in a contemporary manner to ensure it would not be read as a patronising cultural reference. To ensure consistency of the concrete colour, a pigmented stain was applied.

To create the fluid and sinuous forms, along with the geometric precision required the bridge was designed and modelled in Rhinoceros with the associated parametric plug-in Grasshopper. The parametric capability allowed for design iterations to be produced quickly and tested against architectural and structural requirements.

Architect: Warren & Mahoney (Dean Mackenzie, Simon Dodd, Sebastian Hamilton, Chris Brown)
Artist: Henriata Nicholas
Structures: Peters & Cheung (Duncan Peters, Brent Deets, David Brody, Joe Gutierrez)
Lighting: LDP (Mike Grunsell)
Main Contractor: Hawkins Infrastructure (Nick Denham)
Client: Auckland City (Greg Hannah)

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by Warren & Mahoney appeared first on Dezeen.