Review
"…worthwhile addition to the library of bridge history…" (Architectural Review, December 2002)
Product Description
Bridge Builders provides a unique insight into modern bridge building by focusing on both the aesthetic and technical aspects of their construction. Beginning with a history of bridge construction, Martin Pearce goes on to showcase a selection of the best contemporary examples of foot bridges in modern architecture. Illustrated throughout with plans, drawings and high–quality colour photography, it serves as both an inspirational catalogue and visual reference guide.
– Lavishly illustrated with plans,drawings,and colour photographs.
– Features work from around the world by renowned architects and engineers.
From the Inside Flap
It is no coincidence that the dawn of this millennium has been marked all over the world by the building of bridges as the world has stepped into a new era. During this period, construction of monumental road or rail bridges has given way to a focus on the more intimate footbridge, reflecting the mounting concern for sustainability and the encouragement of healthier lifestyles.
Bridge design has traditionally been the domain of the engineer, but recently architects have been increasingly involved in the field, so that now this particular building type quite literally bridges the gap between the two disciplines. The examples featured in this book represent some of the most successful collaborations where architects and engineers, placed on an equal footing, have achieved extraordinarily innovative designs. Bridge Builders begins with an introductory essay examining the history of the bridge throughout the world from ancient times to the present, and analysing its symbolic significance and structural development. This account is followed by descriptions, drawings and photographs of an international selection of recent footbridges, showing the full diversity of current practice and providing an invaluable resource on the subject.
From the Back Cover
It is no coincidence that the dawn of this millennium has been marked all over the world by the building of bridges as the world has stepped into a new era. During this period, construction of monumental road or rail bridges has given way to a focus on the more intimate footbridge, reflecting the mounting concern for sustainability and the encouragement of healthier lifestyles.
Bridge design has traditionally been the domain of the engineer, but recently architects have been increasingly involved in the field, so that now this particular building type quite literally bridges the gap between the two disciplines. The examples featured in this book represent some of the most successful collaborations where architects and engineers, placed on an equal footing, have achieved extraordinarily innovative designs. Bridge Builders begins with an introductory essay examining the history of the bridge throughout the world from ancient times to the present, and analysing its symbolic significance and str uctural development. This account is followed by descriptions, drawings and photographs of an international selection of recent footbridges, showing the full diversity of current practice and providing an invaluable resource on the subject.
About the Author
RICHARD JOBSON is a director of architectural practice Design Engine based in London and Winchester and an architectural consultant to Whitby Bird and Partners. He is also a studio tutor at the University of Portsmouth School of Architecture and a visiting critic at the School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University. As a consultant for Whitby Bird and Partners he worked on York and Lancaster Millennium Bridges as well as the bridges at the Oracle shopping centre, Reading and Shanks Millennium Bridge, Peterborough.
Excerpted from Bridge Builders by M. Pearce. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
London, England
FOSTER & PARTNERS, ANTHONY CARO, OVE ARUP & PARTNERS
The Millennium Bridge springs from a creative collaboration between architecture, art, and engineering. Developed with sculptor Anthony Caro and engineers Ove Arup & Partners, the commission resulted from one of the popular international competitions ever held. London’s only bridge solely for pedestrians, it is the first new Thames crossing since Tower Bridge in 1894.
The bridge links the City and St Paul’s Cathedral, to the north, with the Globe Theatre and Tate Modern on Bankside to the south. A key element in London’s pedestrian infrastructure, it has social and economic impact on both sides of the river, creating new routes into Southwark and contributing to its regeneration, as well as encouraging new life on the embankment alongside St Paul’s.
The paramount concern in designing the bridge was the experience that it offered the user. A windscreen shelters those crossing, allowing them to pause comfortable and enjoy London from a new vantage point, free from traffic and fumes. The materials selected – stainless-steel balustrades and aluminium decking – will be enhanced by use and wear.
Structurally, it is a statement of technological capabilities at the beginning of the millennium. Spanning 320m, it is a very shallow suspension bridge. Two Y-shaped armatures support eight cables which run along the sides of the 4m wide deck. Steel transverse arms clamp onto the cables at 8m intervals to support the deck itself. This groundbreaking structure means that the cables never rise more than 2.3m above the deck – a distance ten times less than that of any other suspension bridge – allowing pedestrians uninterrupted panoramic views of London and preserving sightlines from the surrounding buildings. As a result, the bridge has a uniquely thin profile, forming a slender arc across the water. It spans the greatest possible distance with the minimum means. By day it appears as a thin ribbon of steel and aluminium; at night it forms a glowing blade of light.
CORPORATION STREET FOOTBRIDGE
Manchester, England
HODDER ASSOCIATES
On June 15 1996 a large bomb exploded in Manchester, injuring 330 people and causing immense physical damage to the core of the city centre, its social and economic fabric. The shattered footbridge, which connected two shopping centres across Corporation Street, remains one of the most vivid images.
The Corporation Street Footbridge represents one of the world’s first bridges whose delicate structure traces a hyperbolic paraboloid of revolution. It spans 19m, with 18 rods pre-stresses against 18 compression members via rings at each end. The enclosing glass technology is equally revolutionary, utilising a polyethylene terethalate interlayer clamped into elliptical castings. The footbridge represents a particular response to a unique civic context, and has quickly become a potent iconic symbol for the regeneration of Manchester’s city centre after the bomb.
Corporation Street is a canyon-like road and is a significant, linear, north-south route through the city, culminating in the civic space of Albert Square. The footbridge appears as a lightweight glazed membrane stretched across the street, presenting a minimal intervention with the surrounding urban context. It transparency is heightened by the arch which permits uninterrupted views, and whose symmetry optically redresses the change in the level of the broadwalk. The expressed steel structure is intended to impart the grain of city scale externally, whereas the membrane is a smooth, tactile, finer grain for people using the bridge.
The deck or broadwalk is a conventional steel structure which spans across the varying width, and the bridge is finished in American oak. The void below allows air to be admitted via the compression rings at each end: heated in winter, the warm air rising at the edges of the Broadwalk and venting once again through the compression rings at high level. Ventilation in summer is by similar means, and thus the profile of the bridge also optimises the pattern of natural ventilation. The glazing system, designed in conjunction with Arup Façade Engineering, comprises purpose-made elliptical stainless-steel castings, each clamping six triangular sheets of laminated glass panels.
