Structure studio Christ & Gantenbein has added a sculptural concrete bridge throughout the Aare River in Aarau, Switzerland, with 5 arches of various widths.
Designed in collaboration with native engineering studios WMM Ingenieure and Henauer Gugler, New Aare Bridge connects town centre to a forested space on the opposite facet and incorporates lanes for automobiles, pedestrians and cyclists.
The 119-metre-long construction replaces an ageing concrete crossing in-built 1949 and designed by Christ & Gantenbein to reference its historic environment.
The concrete bridge has a light-weight gray end and is solid with a sample of vertical strains knowledgeable by the city’s stone buildings and medieval homes.
“The bridge’s subtly colored concrete expression is knowledgeable by the mineral context of the outdated metropolis of Aarau,” Christ & Gantenbein instructed Dezeen.“Its design respects the historic significance of the placement, the city construction, and the panorama of the Aare river, and fulfils the wants for contemporary infrastructure.”
“The sample was chosen such that the concrete pouring phases and the requisite enlargement joints coincide with formwork joints, in addition to drawing inspiration from the robustness of Aarau’s stone buildings, medieval homes lining town wall, piers, riverbank reinforcements, and extra,” added Christ & Gantenbein.
Comprising 5 arches of various widths, the New Aare Bridge’s construction takes benefit of current components retained from the unique crossing together with two caissons – a sort of watertight retaining construction.
The widest arch of the bridge is supported by these current caissons, which sit on the centre of the river. The width of the opposite arches reduces in the direction of the banks.
To minimise materials utilization, the studio designed the type of the bridge based mostly on the size of the reused components. It additionally added recesses and holes into the concrete to take away parts which have been structurally pointless.
“Changing a former bridge, our design reuses some current components such because the caissons, to which the geometry needed to adapt,” mentioned the studio. “The bridge is an optimised monolithic building, the place each part contributes to a unified, seamless construction.”
“This contemporary, arch-like, reinforced-concrete building effectively bears hundreds, utilising much less concrete than typical designs,” it continued.
Throughout its 17.5-metre width, the bridge options two automotive lanes, together with pavements and bicycle lanes.
To boost the city space across the bridge, Christ & Gantenbein additionally labored with native panorama studio August + Margrith Künzel Landschaftsarchitekten to create a sequence of public areas and pathways alongside the banks of the river that may be accessed from the bridge.
This features a public sq. with stone paving, a row of lime bushes for shade and lengthy benches that department from the bridge.
“In entrance of the wing partitions we organized, as an extra ingredient of a basic riverside promenade, a row of shady summer time lime bushes,” mentioned panorama architects August and Margrith Künzel.
“They create a nice ambiance and combine the bridge partitions, along with a creating wall of greenery, into the environment,” they continued.
A large path operating alongside one financial institution options house for train and biking in addition to lounge areas shaded by bushes, whereas a meadow stuffed with native planting has been added to the opposite facet of the river.
“The primary intention of our design was to seamlessly combine the bridge into each the city context and the pure surroundings whereas creating beneficiant public areas,” mentioned Christ & Gantenbein. “The brand new riverside hyperlinks the bridge to town the place current promenades are enhanced and newly interpreted.”
Different bridges lately featured on Dezeen embody a sculptural bridge produced from boat-like kinds and a glulam bridge linked to Manhattan’s Excessive Line.
The images is by Stefano Graziani.
