Project 1 Form & Function

A pedestrian bridge is to be constructed over a river. The bridge is to be 190 feet long, 12 feet wide, cannot have a slope greater than 1:12, and can have no structural members over 20 feet in length. The bridge cannot achieve a height of over 100 feet as well. No piece of the bridge is to be constructed in the water, as an endangered species of snail lives in the water below. The bridge must support an observation tower on its span and must also allow a 30 feet x 40 feet object to pass through.

The prototype bridge I have selected was an arc bridge. The movement to be incorporated was the lattice (Shown below). The arc was adjusted to accommodate the extra weight that the movement would add.

It was at this point that I changed the plan for the movement from horizontal to vertical. The movement would now instead drop a piece of the bridge into position instead of being the bridge. This is an image of the earliest development of said movement.

The design was refined later to include the tower into the bridge design. Resulting in this concept.

Later, the design was modified to its final version.