Following the guidelines included below, we were assigned to design a pedestrian bridge a pavilion crossing Miami's Biscanye Boulevard in front of the city's American Airlines Arena.
This project category is to develop a design for a pedestrian bridge that will enrich its location and provide a vital spatial connection. Pedestrian bridges bring together architecture and engineering in a unique way. Free from deeply technical requirements, they can be playful with their structure and form and assume an iconography associated with their purpose of connection and sense of place. Steel construction offers students great benefits in this endeavor, as it allows for wider spans and more creativity. Steel must be used as the primary structural material, with special emphasis placed on innovation in steel design. Steel has played an important role in bridge design. With the advances in structural materials and construction methods, longer spans have become possible, enabling the connections of places and cultures. Bridge design is one of the most pure areas for testing architectural ideas. With the primary function “to span”, the bridge can openly exploit its method of span as an integral driver to its architecture and detailing. The bridge must include an ancillary function – anchor pavilion – that creates a destination and supports the cause for crossing. This could be an interpretive center, gift shop, library, or small museum that serves to explain and enhance the location and the experience of crossing. Since the construction of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, pedestrian bridges have often had auxiliary programs added to the function of connection or passage. Places to sit, view or perform frequently add a more architectural component to the idea of the bridge. The project will concentrate on formulating specific thoughtful concepts and designs and carrying these ideas to a detailed level. The project should be developed with an integrative approach to building materials and systems—structural, environmental, enclosure, etc.—while maintaining an overall design concept. Participants will develop a selected physical area of the project in greater detail considering the building or bridge’s structural and technical issues through larger-scale drawings. Through rendered perspectives and elevations, the proposals should demonstrate surface qualities including material, color, texture, and light. The design should reflect best practices in the use of Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel, including an understanding of the fabrication and erection of the bridge and its associated auxiliary components. Along with structural, tectonic and technical issues above, designs should respond to context (larger regional influences of geography, topography and latitude), climate (sun, wind, light and water), and culture (patterns of interaction rising from human occupation of place). Projects should be designed in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.
2012-2013 ACSA/AISC STUDENT DESIGN COMPETITION
CATEGORY I BUILDING TO BRIDGE - CATEGORY II OPEN
CATEGORY I BUILDING TO BRIDGE - CATEGORY II OPEN
This project category is to develop a design for a pedestrian bridge that will enrich its location and provide a vital spatial connection. Pedestrian bridges bring together architecture and engineering in a unique way. Free from deeply technical requirements, they can be playful with their structure and form and assume an iconography associated with their purpose of connection and sense of place. Steel construction offers students great benefits in this endeavor, as it allows for wider spans and more creativity. Steel must be used as the primary structural material, with special emphasis placed on innovation in steel design. Steel has played an important role in bridge design. With the advances in structural materials and construction methods, longer spans have become possible, enabling the connections of places and cultures. Bridge design is one of the most pure areas for testing architectural ideas. With the primary function “to span”, the bridge can openly exploit its method of span as an integral driver to its architecture and detailing. The bridge must include an ancillary function – anchor pavilion – that creates a destination and supports the cause for crossing. This could be an interpretive center, gift shop, library, or small museum that serves to explain and enhance the location and the experience of crossing. Since the construction of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, pedestrian bridges have often had auxiliary programs added to the function of connection or passage. Places to sit, view or perform frequently add a more architectural component to the idea of the bridge. The project will concentrate on formulating specific thoughtful concepts and designs and carrying these ideas to a detailed level. The project should be developed with an integrative approach to building materials and systems—structural, environmental, enclosure, etc.—while maintaining an overall design concept. Participants will develop a selected physical area of the project in greater detail considering the building or bridge’s structural and technical issues through larger-scale drawings. Through rendered perspectives and elevations, the proposals should demonstrate surface qualities including material, color, texture, and light. The design should reflect best practices in the use of Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel, including an understanding of the fabrication and erection of the bridge and its associated auxiliary components. Along with structural, tectonic and technical issues above, designs should respond to context (larger regional influences of geography, topography and latitude), climate (sun, wind, light and water), and culture (patterns of interaction rising from human occupation of place). Projects should be designed in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.
The program should guide development of a rich sequence of experiences: from the anchor pavilion that introduces the theme of the bridge as crossing, to views of the bridge and from the bridge, as well as aspects of the occupation of the bridge."
Project: a one-story pedestrian/ bicycle gateway into and out of the UM campus. The location of the gateway is directly across from the Metro Rail station on Ponce De Leon Blvd. The gateway should be composed of or include the following amenities: 2 Handicap Unisex Bathrooms, 1 Dock for a mobile kitchen, 10 Bike lockers, 4 Standard Parking spaces with EV chargers on UM side., 1 Shaded rest area, 1 5’x7’ Lockable ventilated room for a battery array., 1 Landscape Fountain, and 1 HC drinking fountain. The gateway should be carbon neutral. This means all the electrical for the gate and water for the sanitary and grey water supply shall be obtained from local sources (i.e.: PV array and rain harvesting system).
