Timber Bridge in Gulou Waterfront

This project is a timber bridge, which is one of the many in Gulou Waterfront Resort. To differentiate it from urban constructions and revitalize traditional rural culture, the design team adopted natural wooden materials to construct an arched bridge.

The plane of the bridge's roof is a complete rectangle. The top, left, right edges of the bridge's side facades also consist of rectangular silhouettes, while only the lower edge is a natural curve. This generates height variations of the corridor space that is higher on the two sides and lower in the middle. The ridge is located in the joint area between a dense traditional commercial street area and a children's recreation area. The designers created a relatively "closed" corridor space on the timber bridge, which is different from other open landscape bridges in the resort. The aims were to accentuate the transition from the "practical" commercial street area to the relatively "dreamy" children's recreation area. The exterior of the corridor space is covered by layers of metal plates, which effectively protect it from rain and create a sense of cohesion for the space. The materials utilized were manufactured and processed by factories based on industrialization standards, and all the necessary timber and metal components were treated by modern industrial technology and methods. During the installation and construction, only the three main beams were hoisted by large machinery. All other follow-up construction steps were fully adaptable and transportable through the hands of the workers in response to the local context.