In midtown Manhattan, the street crossings surrounding the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel were once some of the most challenging in the city. A mess of highway ramps, missing sidewalks, and concrete barriers made the corner of Dyer Avenue and 30th Street an area to avoid.
Now with a new $50 million elevated connector, pedestrians can safely move 30 feet above the intersections using a 600-foot-long L-shaped bridge from the High Line to Moynihan Train Hall.
Sumayya Vally, renowned architect and Principal of the Johannesburg/London-based studio Counterspace, won the competition to design the new Asiat-Darse pedestrian bridge in Vilvoorde, Belgium. Counterspace's design concept delved into the history and impact of Paul Panda Farnana, a significant yet under-appreciated figure in the city, who studied the intricate connections between past and future generations of migrant individuals and communities. "The studio has been praised for its research-led approach, which led to the discovery of Farnana and his work, and for shedding light on an otherwise overlooked, vital part of the city’s history". Construction on the Asiat-Darse pedestrian bridge is set to commence in April 2024, with an estimated completion date of December 2025.
National Museums Liverpool (NML) has revealed a revised version of the redevelopment of the city’s waterfront, led by architect Asif Khan and artist Theaster Gates. The plans include the redesign of the public spaces at Canning Dock, a historical area central to the Liverpool docks. As part of the Waterfront Transformation Project, the interventions aim to create accessible public spaces to better serve the community and to create a link between the surrounding museums. The preliminary proposal is now open for public consultation.
Fred Kent, the founder of the nonprofit organization Project for Public Spaces, once stated that “If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places." It may sound obvious, nevertheless, our cities today are indeed undergoing a rapid transformation from a car-oriented society to a pedestrian-friendly community.
Dutch architectural office VenhoevenCS with its French partner Ateliers 2/3/4/ have won the competition to design the Aquatics Centre for the Olympics Games of 2024 in Paris. The innovative sports center, connected by a new pedestrian bridge to the existing “Stade de France”, will host competitions for water polo, diving, and synchronized swimming. It will also be transformed into a Boccia stadium during the Paralympics. Designed for multifunctional use, the only building to be built for the Games, will remain for the people in Saint-Denis, after the event.
Putting together competition entries from all around the world, this week’s curated feature for Best Unbuilt Architecture showcases inspiring approaches and concepts. Submitted by our readers, the selection highlights uncommon proposals, part of international contests. While some are winning projects, others received honorable mentions.
Serie imagines stacked timber pavilion-like offices, Schlaich Bergermann Partner, LAVA, and Latz + Partner design new pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Neckar River in Heidelberg, Germany and Aidia Studio create an Oculus in the Emirati desert. Other competition entries include a landscaped avenue by ZXD Architects in Hangzhou, a community school in Egypt by Hand Over, a winning pavilion for the Singapore’s Archifest 2020 by ADDP Architects and OWIU Design Studio; and a Baha’i House of Worship by SpaceMatters in India.
100architects has designed a proposal that regenerates the Puji Road pedestrian bridge in Shanghai, China. Entitled High Loop, the proposal reimagines the 1-kilometer elevated platform, adding playfulness and color to the city, without transforming the structure.
Nearly a year after opening its "Xiamen Bicycle Skyway," DISSING+WEITLING Architecture has won another major infrastructure project in the Chinese city. The winning design, "Xiamen Footpaths," is set to be a 21-kilometer network of paths and bridges creating a large-scale network connecting the surrounding nature and the budding metropolis of Xiamen.
Much like DISSING+WEITLING's "Bicycle Snake" did for bicycles in Copenhagen, the "Xiamen Footpaths" will improve the traveling conditions and city experience for pedestrians in the bustling city of Xiamen.
Increasingly close collaboration between architects and engineers has caused an explosion in bridge design over the last few decades, resulting in structures that are both bold yet rational. As a result, cities have exploited bridges as great monuments of design, to foster pride in the residents and promote themselves as a destination for tourists. These ideas have inspired photographer Greig Cranna as he travels the world, capturing the elegance of today's bridge infrastructure.
Cranna has been documenting some of his stunning photography on Instagram, collating it over the past 20 months into a forthcoming book, Sky Architecture—The Transformative Magic of Today's Bridges. In capturing these entrancing structures, the photos show the impact of the bridges as an addition to the landscape and revel in their contemporary silhouettes and designs.
Preliminary Research Office has recently been selected to design a pedestrian bridge in Shenzhen, connecting the two tower buildings, each 210 meters (689 feet) high, which will serve as their client’s future headquarters.
The bridge’s formal composition is the result of two intersecting conic masses, positioned about their common axis and directed towards the towers’ core. Perpendicular cones are split by these larger cones at two points on the bridge’s axis, extending to form observation platforms for flying and viewing drones, while also serving as meeting spaces.
3rd Skin Architects has released the plans for the Haghani Pedestrian Bridge, which will connect the residential zone of Mirdamad, Tehran, to Abbas Abad over the Haghani Highway in Iran.
