ARCHITECTURE AND PROTOTYPING

This project proposes tackles recent innovations in 3D printing within design processes. The question of the prototype is critical, as it allows back in forth iterations between designing and critically reviewing one artefact. This pedestrian bridge spans over 30m above a river.

The fluidity of the design and its simplicity are aimed at introducing new architectural forms based on 3D concrete printing, while maintaining an understandable and familiar hierarchy that refers to the geometrical structures of our civilisation. Moreover, large-scale 3D printing requires reflection on the processual support fabrication and the assembly of continuous surfaces. The final object must meet the challenges set by such technology.

Going back and forth between models and drawing, digital and manual, has pushed the question of making into the process, at the interconnection of the different tools at our disposal. Models can be tested and manipulated in a broader variety of ways which brings new elements to the design process.

The design results in a complex yet clearly hierarchically constructed artefact. The form sits in a liminal moment between arbitrary geometrical elements (i.e., Tubular base) and a liquify blob shape. The bridge is a frozen moment of geometry merging yet remaining readable and providing tectonic attributes while testifying of a morphosis toward a fluid shape that unifies the different paths into a holistic object.

The delicate play of light has been the result of several experimentation on model, with the aim of providing a soft shadow cast while directing the look towards the sky the mystery of the other end of the bridge remains and slowly unveils to evoke the brittle and unknown character of everyday life.