In ‘Building Better
Bridges’ Paul Giroux wanted to highlight some of the unique challenges and
issues we all face in the signature bridge market.
Society has love affair
with landmark bridge: The challenge of
any design problem is to find the right balance of aesthetics (form) and
performance (function). There are a lot
of frustration with the politics, selection process, time, inaccurate budget
estimates, constructability and durability.
Paul used the Minnesota Bridge as an example of unclear bidding process. Even with these frustrations, society want
more then just function, they want form and project their fantasies onto the
bridge hoping that a bridge will beautify their surroundings. There is a demand for major bridges to be
more than just spans. Bridge also wants
to be monuments. Paul used the San
Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge (SFOBB) as an example of the politician’s desire
for a landmark. They didn’t want a
“freeway on stilts”. The Dallas City
Council hops to transform and improve the Dallas landscape with their new
bridge across the Trinity River designed by Spanish architect Santiago
Calatrava. The politicians in western
New York want to emulate the success of the Golden Gate as a new gateway, a defining
moment of entry.
Form vs. Function. Paul spoke about form follows function idea
in design. If we put function as a
priority then form follows its function.
Conversely, when a bridge is designed with aesthetics as a priority, its
function follows its form. There is a
spectrum between form and function. A
successful bridge would be a balance of the two. A bridge by function could be defined as a
structure to span a gap and to provide passage.
A bridge by form could be defined as work of art, to span time and
provide an icon for the dreams and vision of a society. Between those two poles a tug of war goes on
as we endeavor to make our bridges all things to all people.
Historically, Function
has dominated much of bridge design. The
new Signature bridges are replacing the old ones. In the process of selecting a bridge, the
economic involve is difficult to sort through because the design is still in a
schematic phase and cost has not been finalized. The modern post-tensioned technology and
improved concrete mixes have allowed reinforced concrete bridge to be push ever
higher levels of performance, longer spans and increased durability. We are replacing the broken bridges with new
signature bridges. Paul is concerned
that our selection process places too much emphasis on aesthetic
considerations. This needs to
change. He lists the following
categories of changes:
·
Depoliticize the Process
·
Training and Education
·
Learning from our Past
·
Realistic Conductible Details
·
Inform bridge selection: Form and Function
·
Maintain what we build.
A bridge stretched across a river, Heidegger argues, provides such a sense of space. Out of
numerous possibilities along the river, the construction of a bridge was the
site in which a place was constituted. For Heidegger the
bridge in not just a functional object, nor is it a dual signifier of
referential object and symbolic meaning. For Heidegger, a
bridge is a manifestation of the fourfold which is at the base of all dwelling.
A bridge collects and unites all aspects of the fourfold, earth, sky, mortals
and divinities into a "thing". Such things are distinguishes from one
another by the manner in which the manifest the unity of the fourfold. A
bridge, in other words, allows for dwelling on account of its predetermined
unification of the fourfold.
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