Iterative Footbridge

2017 Shanghai, China.

The Footbridge is part of an MLP for an urban park block in Shanghai. The concept is to provide a functional pathway at a key point in the plan, this cuts through the waterway, whilst giving the park a focal point or ‘jewel’. The surrounding landscape design starts to become filled with complex geometry, leading to a viewing area and the bridge.

Structurally, the bridge organises itself on a curved truss, with thirty steel frames each rotating 3 degrees. Allowing for the reverse flat structure at each end, whilst the angle under the bridge changes through the structure, giving the gradual arc required the structural truss supporting the span.

The design as a whole conveys a machine like complexity, with clues as to how the structure works inherent in the visual language. The finish is white to emphasise the span as separate from the piers. Communicating a lightness and dynamism whilst connecting to the landscape through the bridge deck materials.