In January 2020 DC Structures Studio had great fun working with with Professor F. Barpi and his students from the Politecnico di Torino (Turin Polytechnic, Italy) to help judge their footbridge designs. The Turin Polytechnic Architecture students had been arranged into 15 design teams with the aim of designing footbridges for connecting communities. The work was performed in close cooperation with A. Tabacco and G. Ballatore.
We are very proud that the collaboration efforts between DC Structures Studio and Politecnico di Torino have been published in the May 2021 International Journal of Engineering: Engineering Pedagogy titled Pedestrian Bridge Application in a Fundamentals of Structural Analysis Course Inside an Architecture Bachelor Program.
The array of interesting and remarkable bridges was exciting to see and our favorite part of this participation was to see the unbridled creativity on offer. Hopefully this experience will help inspire these students into bridge design careers… for those that do we look forward to working with them in the future!
Dan Crocker – DC Structures Studio
Each of the fifteen teams presented their chosen concept to Dan (Technical Director from DC Structures Studio] and in turn Dan provided feedback and asked key questions. Each team was then awarded a mark of 1-10 for “Structural Feasibility”, “Creativity”, and “Presentation Quality”. We saw a breath-taking array of different footbridge forms (trusses, arches, stay-cable, beams bridge), materials (steel, concrete, plastics, timber), and saw some very interesting consideration of the community context of each footbridge location. We were thoroughly impressed by the overall passion and creativity on offer.
Our judging scores and feedback were then used by Professor Fabrizio Barpi (Department of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering) to mark individuals for their participation in the Architecture course module.
We have assembled the full array of footbridges on offer in the gallery below. By hovering over each image you will see the name and at the bottom of the page is the link to the detailed presentation summary so you can find out more about your favourite bridge.
The students are very keen to hear what the wider industry thinks of their efforts so please provide feedback in the comments fields below if you are able. Hopefully this experience will help inspire them to be the bridge designers of the future!
Download Bridge Designs
