MORE THAN A BRIDGE

Program: Restaurant, theatre, park, exhibition space, open air theatre

Location: Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brasil

Year: 2014

Key words: Urban bridge | Park| Continuity | Public space | Architecture | Urbanism

Design task | During the first weeks of a project the design task was to create a section of an urban bridge. This bridge should go over the river Pinheiros in São Paulo.

Design process | After analysing the different locations, I concluded that the best place for this urban bridge is between two different sub-centres: Butantâ and Faria Lima. This area features three different public transport hubs, some art galleries, a cultural centre and several shops, promoting a busy public realm. Because of this area is easy to reach by public transport there is no need for making the bridge accessible for motor vehicles. It will only be accessible for pedestrians and cyclists (1). To further promote the accessibility of the area, the small network of cycling paths (2) will be extended from Faria Lima all the way to the University of São Paulo, making the area interesting for students to live.

To promote a vivid public realm, the bridge needs to be more than just a connection between two different sides. Most bridge are these open spaces where people do not want to stay for a long time. To change this, this bridge is a continuation of the landscape (3). Instead of putting the program around the bridge, the bridge will house the program. There is no hard line of where the bridge begins and where the surrounding landscapes ends.

One of the goals of this design is to limit the barriers and make every space highly accessible: this bridge doesn’t have any stairs, only ramps. It’s a realisation of the flow diagram (4) that I drew.