NATURE BRIDGE

CIVIC, CULTURAL

Client Beijing Tongzhou District Government
Location Tongzhou District, Beijing, China
Program Ecological corridor, landscape bridge, museum, service facility, commercial, cultural arts
Area 15,342 m² / 165,140 ft²
Length 3,068 m (10,066 ft)
Status Competition

Adding to the Beijing Tongzhou Grand Canal’s civic and cultural goals, we conceive its future identity as a bridge that connects two foundational themes—a concept of nature, and its physical embodiment in the surrounding landscape. In a synthesis of the Grand Canal with surrounding gardens, estuaries, and urbanism, our proposal imagines three new pedestrian bridges that follow a series of generative design operations. Weaving the individual and the collective, the monumental and the intimate, the manmade and the organic—the project seeks to transform the Beijing Tongzhou Grand Canal into a symbol of a future where civilization exists in symbiosis with nature.

Connecting two new urban landscape parls along the Grand Canal, the NatureBridge is concevied as a an aggreagation of overlapping catenary spans. Gently rising up and over the grand canal, each catenary span varies in height and length to respond to unique vistas and landscapes.

Team
Andrew Heid, Mingli Huang, Xian Liu, Junwei Li, Shunfan Zheng, agence TER, AATU

Distinctions
First Prize