Hololab - Chapter 1 "Wars+sava Bridge"

Hololab ref010811.02

Performed By: White Phosphorus and Pokefinger



Subject: "Wars+sava Bridge"


Abstract: An attempt to combine [...]


Topics:


1)Conception of Thought


The "Wars+sava Bridge" Is a connection between the workshop of a dissabled creator and his family dwelling.


2) Setting



View Larger Map'>London Shad Thames - The fictional home of Oliver Twist (If you look closely, you can just about make out the exisiting Steel and timber bridges already crossing over the street)


3)Geometrical Genesis


What do you want the bridge to be? What do you want the bridge to connect? What storey has the bridge to tell?


The Bridge must stimulate the thought process of the viewer. It should reach out and touch you when you experience it, walk over it or see it. It must stretch the viewer by itself pushing the boundaries of what a bridge can be.


Pontevecchio is a Renascence bridge with overhanging shops as it crossed the river. It stretched the ideas of what a bridge could be at the time. Zaha Hadid- Can a Bridge be a "horizontal skyscraper". The concept of bridge can challenged by adding new functionality and adapt to the needs of a comunity.


But what happens when your community is a) disabled & b)of immigrant status?


The "Wars+sava Bridge" Forms a defensive and mobile adaptation to a new environment.


4) The Engineering

The story is not always easily expressed. The physical form that embodies the message of the bridge is one which would not be obviously chosen based on conventional criterion. It poses a challenge.

The tapered shape is inherently beneficial to match the distribution of moments. The chosen crossection is favourable for the distribution of stresses.

But the material - ie concrete - is an interesting material solution for a bridge that moves or slides.

Pokefinger: What was amazing for me explaining the concept to White Phosphorus (WP) Gave more life to the process. The fact that it was challenged and solutions were explored made it more real. The fact that it was deemed potentially possible was inspiring and made me realise theat the designer must have a closer relationship to one whoo understands the physical workings of structure. there needs to be a balance between the requirements of the structure and the storey it needs to tell, and what needs to be figured out is the order in which these two are conceved. To what degree can it be simultanious without one impeding or restricitng the other?

White Phosphorus: When I first the bridge I thought: This is the last solution i would conceve to what i thought was a very simple problem: get from one side to the other. Pokefinger wanted subtantially more than that: He wanted to a storey, and this became apparent very early on. What was incredible was to start from a concept that seemed absolutly irrational from a structural point of view and yet rational from a sociological and narrative point of view. It was exciting to enable the story to be told, and it will be interesting to see to what degree structure influences the final flavours of the end product. I would have never conceved such a form from where i was standing.

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