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/

Day 4 – My poster contribution

Date November 10, 2016

Posted by Maddison Edwards

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Each member of the group agreed upon a section from the poster criteria to contribute. My section was to conceptually present our structure through a means of freehand sketches, with relevant annotation. Whilst this may seem a simple task, illustrating the concept to make it clear to everyone was rather challenging.
I wanted my illustrations to be informed and the configurations to be proportionate. The use of the web and one book in particular – ‘Living Bridges’ by Dethier, J. (1996) proved helpful towards achieving this.
I also heavily contributed towards the presentation of the poster, writing up and illustrating the sections sent to me by the other group members.

Day 3 – Bridge forces research

Date November 10, 2016

Posted by Maddison Edwards

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Forces acting upon the bridge flagged up as a very important area for consideration as I began creating conceptual sketches.
All bridges must balance forces in order to be successful.
The two main forces include compression and tension, which channel loads through the structure via its adjustments and piers.
Forces acting upon the bridge flagged up as a very important area for consideration as I began creating conceptual sketches.
All bridges must balance forces in order to be successful.
The two main forces include compression and tension, which channel loads through the structure via its adjustments and piers.

Loads can be described as dead or live loads.
Where the dead load is known as static, in theory being the structure itself. Therefore it’s self weight, made up of the densities of materials, for example reinforced concrete is approximately 25kN/m^3. The live load on the other hand, changes dependent on activity on the bridge.

Day 2 – Design workability

Date November 9, 2016

Posted by Maddison Edwards

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Day 2 involved a substantial amount of design and planning. The morning was spent creating a design, before anthropometric data and scaling to determine the feasibility of the idea was investigated. Further to this, we not only explored real sizes and material options but spent much of the day scaling it down and reviewing materials available for our model. We achieved this in the most proficient way, for time purposes, by each looking at an element of the design and sketching various views, with sizes and annotation to get the best understanding of how it would work (My area for exploration was the ramps). Unfortunately, towards the end of the day it became apparent that our concept was not as practical as we had initially thought and this lead to the need for many changes in the direction of our project.

Day 1 – Overview

Date November 9, 2016

Posted by Maddison Edwards

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The week begun with an introduction, site visit and modelling lab induction, which were essential to clearly establishing the project.
Our designated task throughout the day, was then to begin some conceptual design ideas. In order to create a feasible and artistic design, prior research to beginning any sketches was key.
By the end of the day we felt confident with the site layout and thought we had a good starting point to work from. Our idea involved a central roundabout over the road, to act as a centre piece to the two points we wanted to create easier access between (inspired by Luchtsingel, Netherlands).

Mwaka Musuumba Humber -Day 1(ideas, briefing and getting a flow of thing)

Date November 7, 2016

Posted by Mwaka Musuumba

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Bridges, cyclists and footpaths.

Those were the main points I got from the briefing that was delivered this morning.

A group site inspection was carried out in order for everyone to have a better understanding of what surrounds we were working with. On this visit I took plenty pictures, that way when it came to designing we wouldn’t have to venture out into the cold again.

Once back in the warmth, sitting in our group we decided to start sketching down some ideas.

Something Noel said to us while on site struck out to me and boom I had it.
I was inspired by a spider, with it’s 8 legs, being the difference access points for the cyclists and the pedestrians.

After making a rough sketch and pitching the idea to the rest of the group they were sold on it.

And like that the day was over, our leader set us homework on doing more research on types of bridge supports, materials etc. Just to further our understanding.

Humber bridge

Date November 7, 2016

Posted by Jeanne Faustino

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Golden gate bridge’s little brother

Measuring at 2,220m in a single-span Humber bridge is located near Kingston upon Hull. Currently the eighth longest suspension bridge.

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