Bridge architecture and design

Space & Matter create smart functional hotel rooms from Amsterdam's iconic bridge houses

What started out as an urban development project has evolved into Sweets Hotel, a concept that is transforming Amsterdam’s 28 bridge houses into an ensemble of one-of-a-kind hotel suites all over the city. The quirky chambers, which hover over the...

Bridging the gap: W* meets French engineer and architect Marc Mimram

Marc Mimram is a qualified engineer and architect who is passionate about infrastructure. Based in Paris, his bridges and buildings can be found across Europe and beyond. This Thursday (14 July), Mimram will speak at the event ’Beyond the Bridge’...

Bird’s-eye view: Gloucestershire’s Treetop Walkway offers new perspective

Since its acquisition by the Forestry Commission in 1956, visitors to the National Arboretum at Westonbirt, Gloucestershire, have only been able to enjoy the park’s verdant surroundings in the more traditional way: from the ground up. Now the newly opened STIHL Treetop Walkway...

Mind the gap: design revealed for Tintagel Castle footbridge in Cornwall

Civil engineers Ney & Partners, together with London based architecture practice William Matthews Associates, have won the English Heritage competition for the footbridge on Cornwall’s breathtaking Tintagel Castle site. The historic structure attracts some 200,000 visitors annually and is...

Bridge builders: Vietnamese design firm District Eight links industrial and elegant

Inspired by bridge construction, the ‘Kahn’ dining table, by Ho Chi Minh City-based design studio District Eight, is a smart piece of flexible engineering. Imagined for group gatherings as well as singular office use, the rectangular oak top sits on...

Ring road: Rafael Viñoly unveils a new bridge on a Uruguayan lagoon

The unspoiled blue waters of the Garzón lagoon – a stone’s throw from Uruguay’s breathtaking southern beaches – now feature a new ring-shaped bridge, courtesy of Uruguay-born, New York-based architect Rafael Viñoly. ’The concept was to transform a traditional vehicular...

Forging ahead: Thomas Heatherwick updates us on the Garden Bridge

The swirling grey waters of the Thames are about to be disrupted for the first time in over a decade. This Spring, work begins on two piers between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge, the foundations for the newest and perhaps...

A pedestrian bridge by Next Architects is also a bat haven for South Holland

Poelzone, a ribbon of land in the Dutch province of South Holland, has been undergoing a sensitive transformation by Lola landscape architects to form an ecological and recreational connection through the country’s greenhouse-filled region of Westland.  Marking its entrance, Amsterdam...

The great outdoors: this summer’s most exhilarating installations

Red Bridge House: steel accents and a wraparound terrace draw a modern family home out of its woodland setting

Red Bridge House is a modern family home among the ancient woodlands of East Sussex. Initially conceived as a weekend retreat, the design - contained within a simple linear volume by British architect Piers Smerin - was so successful, the...

A tour of the University of Cambridge Sports Centre by Arup Associates, which hosted our July issue fashion story

Located in the expanding western part of the city, the new University of Cambridge Sports Centre is the handiwork of Arup Associates. Now open for students, academic staff, and the public, the building sits at the edge of the town’s...

Hull’s new Scale Lane Bridge by McDowell+Benedetti swings into life

Santiago Calatrava doesn’t have the monopoly on elaborate bridges. Here in the UK, the birthplace of industrial engineering, there’s been recent resurgence in quirky solutions that translate the act of crossing water into an elaborate performance. Thomas Heatherwick’s compact Rolling...