Urban bridge as a lighting design for the landscape

Understanding the characteristics of bridges

The urban road overpass is one of the urban bridges. It is a kind of transportation facility that solves the intersection of urban roads. The other is the bridges that straddle the city rivers. Because of their criss-crossing and interconnection, their volume and shape characteristics form a unique image in the city, and some even become the dominant urban landscape, especially at night. .

The understanding of bridge landscape characteristics should be based on three aspects: functional characteristics, structural characteristics and symbolic meaning.

For the lighting design of the bridge, it should be based on the function, focusing on the performance structure, and highlighting the landscape significance of the bridge itself.

Structural characteristics of bridges

From ancient times to today, although the shapes of bridges are different, the structural logic is very clear. For example, the Hongliang Bridge in Song Dynasty in China, the Suspended Bridge in Sichuan, and the Anji Bridge in Zhao County, built in the Sui Dynasty, this 37.37-meter-long large curved stone arch bridge created the miracle of the stone arch bridge, expressing Ancient artisans' understanding of mechanics. In the history of Western architecture, Roman stone arches are well known and widely used, and the construction of Roman arches also shows structural forms based on masonry needs. In modern times, the application of steel in bridges has fundamentally changed the structure of bridges, such as the Forth Railway Bridge in Scotland, the Thames Iron Bridge in London, England, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. The form of bridges of this type of structure exhibits a complex combination of steel beams and ribs, just like the structure of the Eiffel Tower. The emergence of reinforced concrete and the application of steel cable cables have led to a revolution in the history of bridges. This combination of tensile and compressive forces has led to a more pure structural mechanics.

The design of modern bridges has a tendency to pursue extreme mechanics, such as a series of steel bridges designed by Spanish designer Santiago Calatrava and Newman Foster's London Millennium Bridge. Structural design of bridges has always been based on the structural work of structural engineers. “Bridges are the works of engineers. Under the constraints of economic laws, engineers are under the control of mathematical calculations, which allows us to coordinate with the natural laws of the universe. ......" ("Towards New Architecture")

Most of the modern urban overpasses in China are dominated by reinforced concrete structures. The form of the bridge is composed of basic elements such as columns, bridge decks and barriers. With the difference of span and cross form, the structural form sometimes changes accordingly. Of course, there are also overpasses that specially handle the modeling to highlight the characteristics of the landscape.