ROUND AND ROUND IT GOES
09 Feb 2017
This year's winner of the Directors Choice Award for the AC-CA Competition is a proposal for a rotating bridge in Dublin that will serve double-duty as a public performance space.
Feng Xue, Helen Chan, Oscar Reyes, and their team, have won the Director’s Choice Award in the AC-CA competition that called for contemporary footbridge designs in Dublin, Ireland. Entitled ‘The Catalyst’, the team’s winning design proposal is described as “a dynamic link which stimulates diverse urban activities and facilitates a spectacular cityscape”.
Created around the idea of enhancing the surrounding Dockland neighbourhood and Dublin at large, The Catalyst acts at once as a physical link and as a new vantage point that encourages pedestrians to take a moment to reflect.
The organic curved form of the bridge is a nod to significant buildings in the area, such as the Harp Bridge and Convention Center (CCD), and the Irish cultural heritage, which prizes circular and curved designs and patterns. In addition, the design utilises a symmetrical approach so as to resonate with the local Georgian heritage architecture.
With a pivotal structure driven by a cylindrical motor, the bridge can move to allow for the passing the boats and large ships that are still a regular presence in the waterways of Dublin and make space for cultural activities like the Dublin Marine Festival. In addition to these practicalities, the bridge itself houses an amphitheatre and can support a variety of performances.
“Functionally, the new bridge is a meeting place, a viewing platform for visitors, a worker’s break-out area, a lover’s dating spot, a shortcut for pedestrians and cyclists, and an amphitheatre for buskers,” said the design team.
“Despite the vast functional possibilities, our bridge proposal respects and realises the rich historical context of Dublin by creating a space that looks back at its urban context. Our response to the enhancement of Dublin is to create a place that acts as a catalyst to stimulate and exhibit the transformation of the city. The bridge is a book to the stories of Dublin, waiting to be discovered.”