Humber Day 3 (Changes and model making)

Date November 12, 2016

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After concluding, the day before that we would need to change our design to make it lighter and adapt more with the existing environment; we decided to remove the two smaller dome and make those landings, we kept the big donut one in the middle as that would be our “WOW” point of the bridge making it memorable for anyone who would use it. By removing the two smaller domes, this meant that we would be using ramp and not elevators.

We had to start looking at ramp requirements, to make sure our bridge met the restrictions but we did not want the ramp to be too steep for cyclists, due to market research we found that the desired steepness was 4%.

Most of day was spent considering how we could build a bridge that would meet the ramping restrictions which we found out that for every 10m a landing is needed.

The drawing above shows the development drawing, of the bridge once we decided to go for the ramps. We also had to look at the diameter of the donut we went for 8m radius, to accommodate, for both cyclists and pedestrians.

We went for arches supporting the donut shape as this would allow vehicles to pass through under as well as not take too much space on the path, as we are trying to cause the least amount of distribution when installing the bridge. The donut would need to be 5m off the ground, as this is the recommended height for bridges. We came up with covering the path with hardened glass, as it’s transparent and durable people would be able to appreciate the surroundings, and be protected from weathering and any accidents.

Later, in the day we started making the model of our bridge we decided to make our model 1:200 thinking it could work but little did we know we would be wrong……..

The image above shows our 1:200 model.

Humber Day 2 (Precedent studies, inspiration and designing)

Day 2 of the bridge project, was all about getting our design finalized and materials together. So, that we could begin construction on the model on day 3.

Precedent studies:

Nature was a huge part of the design looking at the first ideas. Spiders and trees were some thoughts. I suggested a spider as we would have a middle part which would be donut shape and have different access points leaving it; just like a spider’s legs. But the group decided to consider the tree idea but keep some aspects of the spider’s legs idea for the different access points; so, we ended up with a dreamy tree house bridge, with the brunches on the tree supporting the donut shape in the middle.

We began drawing up some ideas, as well as looking at some existing bridges for more inspiration and seeing how they were positioned and made, most importantly the materials that we used in creating the bridge.

Some of the bridges we looked at were the Ponte Segunda Circular, Peace bridge in Luchtsingel, Melkwe bridge and the Laguna Garzon bridge. These bridges helped us in steering our design process.

Ponte Segunda Circular

The bridge was designed by Telmo Cruz of MXT studio this footbridge is in the second circular road in Lisbon. The footbridge caters for pedestrians and cyclists. The orange passage is constructed using steel.

Importantly the bridge was inspired by its surroundings of farm paths that found within the local landscape.

This was great as it showed us an example of a big bridge that was also able to compliment its existing landscape and that’s what our bridge needed to do as well as can have various assess points to reach more people.

Peace Bridge

Completed in 2012 and designed by architect Santiago. The peace bridge spans the bow river in Calgary connecting a residential community with the downtown area. Using a helical structure to partially enclose the bridge; a central bike lane with a pedestrian path can be found on the structure.

Melkwe Bridge

Found in Purmerend and designed by NEXT architects, separates pedestrians and cyclists on two levels. With an archway of step curves located on the lower deck, which splits to allow boats to travel through the Noordhollandsch Kanaal.

This is where we got the idea f the two different levels separating the cyclists and pedestrians, but we did not consider that this bridge is over water and therefore can be heavy compared to ours which will be located on land.

Laguna Bridge

Located in Garzon, Uruguay and was designed by Rafael Vinoly. It was designed in a circular shape to force drivers to slow down and allow pedestrian access along the one -way circular route.

Looking at this bridge was helpful as we could see a very recently built bridge with a similar design that we wanted to follow. Though research found that the bridge was made from concrete, which allowed us to reconsider the type of materials we could use, since our bridge wasn’t for cars we had to look at lightweight alternatives.

These are some the drawings we came up with after looking at some president studies.

We also started looking that legal requirement for the space a bike and pedestrians need on a bridge this was 5m between them with segregation which we would have.

We also able to decide on a location for our bridge.

Through the day we started building up upon the idea, one of these was having two separate bridges within the bridge, so basically having two different levels one for cyclists and another for pedestrians, that could be accessed to using a lift or a ramp; we also came up with having three circular structures as part of the bridge. The main one being a donut, and the others being domes with elevators and ramps for access. On further development, we thought of having columns that would add cover to both the levels, but unfortunately we were advised that wouldn’t work as it would make the structure heavy and not adaptable to the current environment.

So were basically back to square one on the idea and had to go back to the drawing board. The team leader advised everyone to go away and try and come up different ideas or concepts that would be able to fit within the existing environment but didn’t stray too much from the ordinal idea we came up with.

Resources

Pedestrian Bridges and footbridges with amazing design by Elizabeth Stamp-http://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/worlds-best-pedestrian-bridges/all

Rafael Vinoly completes cicular bridge spanning a Uruguayan logoon by Jessica Mairs -http://www.dezeen.com/2016/01/19/laguna-garzon-bridge-circular-rafael-vinoly-uruguay-lagoon/

Group 6 – the week

Date November 12, 2016

Posted by kharding

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A good experience, working with new people and learing what they are learning. Also learing new skills with them to produce a really good bridge design. The week started a bit confusing as I had no idea what we were doing, but then I started to understand after we sat down in our group and talked about what we were doing. Day 2 my job was the stairs at each end of the brigde. They stared looking like nothing, but when they where painted and put together with the bridge and other parts they looked like real stairs. I also had the job of filling each end so that when people walk up and down the stairs they dont fall of. Day 3 last adjustments and presentaion. All help was needed to get the final outcome of our design, but we did it and everything was finished with a really good bridge design. I was really happy with the way they bridge turned out, it was not like anything I expected.

Chilli Wilson – Group 3 (Millau) – Day 1

Date November 11, 2016

Posted by Chilli Wilson

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The first day saw the each of our members converge as a group; me, Chris, Tracey, Lewis and Maisie after we had converge as a group we were briefed on our task for the week: To design and produced a scale model of a cyclist/pedestrian bridge, that connected the east side of Lewes Road to the west side thus connecting the whole of the Moulscoomb campus of the University of Brighton.

After we had a lecture on the different constructions of bridges, such as truss bridges, cable-stay bridges,etc, we had a site visit to the entrance of Mithras house which illustrated the height difference from the entrance of Mithras house to Lewes road:

On the way towards Mithras house I noticed the the amount of trees and other protected structures such as cameras and traffic lights, which meant that our bridge piers and location would be dictated by the location of these structures.

This identified the design parameters set up for our group to design a bridge to fit the brief in Day 2.

Part 1 – Getting Started

Date November 11, 2016

Posted by Kieran Mclean

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The week started with an introduction to the brief: to design a pedestrian and cyclist footbridge to link both parts of the University of Brighton’s Moulsecoomb campus, as well as Preston Barracks which is to be redeveloped and integrated to the campus.

This was followed by a lecture introducing us to the fundamentals of bridges: bridge components, different construction methods and existing footbridges around the world.

Next, we visited the site to gain a first-person perspective of the task at hand. The planes on which Preston Barracks, Watts Building and Cockcroft Building are found are less than a metre above the level of Lewes Road, while Mithras House is located on a steep incline, and is subsequently around 7 metres above Lewes Road.

View of Mithras House from Lewes Road

There are also many trees lining the Lewes Road pathway (Mithras Road side), as well as just within the limits of Preston Barracks, blocking a direct route between the two. These could pose a problem if permission can not be given to remove them, and if they were to be removed, it may be necessary to devise a way to replace their environmental benefits.

Cluster of trees along Lewes Road

At the front of Watts, there is an area of cycle stands and an enclosed bike shed adjacent to it. It was around midday and less than half of the cycle stands were in use which implies it is not heavily used. For this reason, I thought it may be an ideal platform to use for the bridge to take off from. The bike shed is currently gated off due to construction works, and is therefore not in use. Once it becomes available again, it would replace any bike spaces lost.

Bike shed, currently not in use in front of Watts Building

Cycle stands in front of Watts Building

Chilli Wilson – Group 3 (Millau) – Day 5

Date November 11, 2016

Posted by Chilli Wilson

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On day five, we were instructed that we were presenting our bridge design in the drawing studio.

Even though we were told that presenting would commence at 11AM, our group arrived at 9AM, enabling us to apply any finishing details to the model. After I had printed off an A1 print of our poster, we transported the chipboard base which held our different scale-models.

Chilli Wilson – Group 3 (Millau) – Day 4

Date November 11, 2016

Posted by Chilli Wilson

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With the topography of the site completed in day three, me and Chris could complete constructing the 1:1000 scale model of our sky walk.

Once the 1:1000 scale model was built we could focus on fabricating a 1:200 model of a section of the walkway :

However, upon construction we discovered that the length of the walkway between the two piers is too long to be supported sufficiently, it would require a steel truss that is so large that a 5.7m of minimum road clearance would not be possible with this design.

To combat this problem a column, double the height of the piers at 24m, was offset to the bridge with tension wires to support the middle of the bridge:

With the 1:200 model fabricated we could now focus on the 1:50 scale model of our detail of our design, this model illustrated the joint between the walkway and the “pod” pier and highlights the prefabricated nature of our design:

With these three models created we could now focus the morning of day five on practising what each individual will present in our presentation.

Chilli Wilson – Group 3 (Millau) – Day 3

Date November 11, 2016

Posted by Chilli Wilson

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As stated in the last Blog post, with the dimensions of our design calculated, we could commence work on constructing the model of our bridge. Once we had convened as a group, we set about to the heavy engineering wing to create a scale model of our design.

Once there, me and the Hazelwick students were tasked with translating the topographical information we had gather from in front of Mithras house:

This had to follow an A1 1:1000 map of the site we had printed off the day before:

Once the topography in front of Mithras house had been successfully rendered in to the model-space we set about constructing Mithras House, Watts building and Cockroft building. The erection of these buildings in the model space enabled our sky-walk to be viewed in context within the Moulsecoomb campus.

With the completion of these buildings and the topography, we could commence constructing our model of the bridge at scale 1:1000, a close-up model of the walkway at scale 1:200 and a 1:50 scale model of a the joint between a walkway and a “pod”, where the walkways converge.

Loads on bridge model drawing :Akul Purohit

Date November 11, 2016

Posted by akulpurohit

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I had drawn a model of the bridge and wrote about all information needed to help understand how the loads would be transferred from the bridge to the ground.

Day 1 – Design Brief

Date November 10, 2016

Posted by lwheeler1

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Day 1

On our first day of the design week we were put straight into groups and given a task to complete over the week. After we discussed the task and clearly understood what we needed to do, we where taken to the site.

When we arrived at the site we established what we were working with and sketched out some basic designs of bridges that we would be able to implement, and help us with, into our final design. We took some pictures so we could look and refer back to the site if needed.

A27, Lewes Road

A27, Lewes Road

When we arrived back we discussed the design sketches more and was given research to complete for the Wednesday.

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