Bridges have always been a beautiful combination of architecture and engineering, and as our need to constantly push our understanding of what is possible and achievable, the standard bridge design has become boring, yet there will always be some things we can never dismiss ourselves from. The Xidayinggang Twin Bridges by CA-DESIGN, is an elegantly simple landmark for Qingpu in Shanghai, China. The bridges span a 50 meter wide canal flanked by two roads and was designed to provide the city with a symbolic structure that was reasonable, inexpensive, and avant-garde.
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The conception of these bridges stem from the forms of the sacred mountains in that area, causing the structure to have a balanced asymmetry, where the twisted nature begins to resemble a chain of DNA, a metaphor for the vitality of the new city. To effectively simulate the mountain’s fractal line, the planes of the arches in the arch and cable suspension system are rotated. This action also causes the stiffeners and cables to also twist and turn in response to the parabolic arches.
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The engineering of this bridge is quite interesting, as the arches jump from side to side of the deck, and since the heights of the arches are proportional to their spans, they don’t touch one another. Instead rotating stiffeners generate a series of virtual surfaces of double curvature that provide added support as well as emphasize the dynamic gesture the arches are making. This design is a creative new take on a suspension bridge, incorporating a graceful movement of structure and cables that is minimalist while still making an impact in the area.
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