Abre Etteh

Dense Bridge

Abre Etteh

In bridging between two points, a new relationship is created with the landscape. One that detaches the user from the ground plane. A second relationship is also created beneath the bridge. The premise of this proposal was to give equal weight to both conditions.

The structural concept behind the bridge is of creating a balance between structural lightness and density. The lightness of structural members gives them a sense of imperceptibility to the users above and when viewing it from a far. The density of structural members delineates the spacial relationship of the bridge with the street scene.

A simple steel plate spanning the gap acts as the bridge deck and steelrods spaced in a tight, dense grid give support to the deck above.

This density becomes the generator of the new landscape below as discreet members are deflected as they approach the ground, opening up spaces underneath.

Typically, long span bridges are supported by large struts along their length asa means of reducing the need for deeper and heavier structural sections. Similar to a bed of nails, this bridge transfers imposed loads all along its length, resulting in a structurally dense section.

The average shoe size (in the UK) is 155mm and the grid spaced in a 300mm module. Each strut and section of the deck then, is providing a kind of minimal span of human proportions.

Five variants represent the extent of structural types supporting the deck. The elements are simply coordinated to a grid reference and welded on site.