Amanda Levete, Grimshaw and Heneghan Peng are between the 6 teams that have unveiled designs for a new bridge over the River Avon in Bath, England .
Bath Quays Bridge will link a new development on the financial institution of the River Avon with Bath’s UNESCO-protected city centre, which is known for its Roman ruins and Georgian architecture constructed in honey-toned stone. It will be the initial new bridge to be constructed above the river in 100 years.
Entry 1
A competitors to style the £2.5 million bridge was launched by Bath and North East Somerset Council in February. From the fifty types submitted, 6 shortlisted teams were asked to develop proposals.
Related story: “Certainly not a bridge”
Last proposals by the six teams – London architecture studio AL_A led by Amanda Levete, Grimshaw Architects, Dublin studio Heneghan Peng, French architect Marc Mimram and British engineering firms Flint & Neill and Price & Myers – have now been unveiled.
Entry two
Every single of the companies has a track record in designing public structures – Flint & Neill is a bridge-design professional, Heneghan Peng is the firm behind the Giant’s Causeway Visitors’ Centre in Northern Ireland and AL_A has just finished a Melbourne’s MPavilion, a task billed as Australia’s reply to Britain’s yearly Serpentine Gallery Pavilion.
The 1st of the anonymously submitted proposals is a metal-framed bridge that refers to the city’s industrial history. “It synthesises the exploitation of modern day engineering with the heritage of the city,” stated the layout team.
Entry two
The 2nd shortlisted entry, a wide curving path with crisscrossing balustrades has a developed-in bench to encourage users to pause and take pleasure in views of the river.
“The bridge walks the fine line in between attracting consideration in a memorable way and blending in with its rich context,” explained the designers.
Entry 3
The third concept, a lighting bolt-shaped framework named The Zig Zag Bridge, is intended to be “robust and enduring and a new landmark for Bath.”
Entry 4
Entry 4 characteristics a gently undulating surface and spindly balustrades and is designed as a “gentle tie” between the landscape on either side of the river.
Entry four
Planting trails from a timber pergola in the centre of the fifth design, which also characteristics cable-mesh balustrades and a fanned seating arrangement that steps down to a path by the river’s edge.
Entry 5
The ultimate entry, “a spot to pause and view the boats go by”, has perforated metal balustrades. The rusted colouring of the railings “produces a hyperlink in between the greenery of the financial institution and the industrial buildings.”
Entry 5
The 6 shortlisted types for Bath Quay Bridge will be exhibited anonymously at the city’s council-run A single Cease Shop until 25 September and are also accessible to see on the internet on the Bath & North East Somerset Council website.
Entry 6
The winning design and style will be chosen by a Council jury and announced in November 2015.
Many cities are investing in building comparable pedestrian and cycle bridges to aid alleviate targeted traffic and develop new connections through urban places.
Entry 6
A latest competition to develop a new pedestrian and cycling bridge above London’s River Thames attracted far more than 70 entries. Rotterdam studio ZUS described their 400-metre-prolonged pedestrian bridge in their home town as the “world’s very first crowdfunded public infrastructure venture”.
In the USA, Rem Koolhaas’ firm OMA teamed up with landscape architecture studio Olin to produce the design for the 11th Street Bridge Park – a raised garden spanning Washington DC’s Anacostia River – and 64North Architecture is designing a pedestrian and cyclist bridge connecting the San Francisco Bay waterfront and Palo Alto – home to some of the world’s leading technological innovation companies.
