STATUS
IDEA
CLIENT
The Swedish Transport Administration
TYPOLOGY
Infrastructure
SIZE M2/FT2
406 / 4,370
SHARE
Investments in infrastructure too often happen at the expense of the environment. When BIG was invited to design a highway bridge spanning two forested banks in the Stockholm archipelago we decided to explore a new form of symbiosis between infrastructure and nature – creating connections for people on foot and in cars, as well as flora and fauna.
The span needed to be long and tall enough to allow sailing boats to navigate the archipelago underneath the highway. The obvious solution was an arch extending between the two banks of the shore. A forest of slender steel pillars connect the structural arch with the highway lanes above.
Skuru Parkbridge represents a new form of social infrastructure, which is not only aesthetic and environmentally well-integrated with the natural landscape, but is also socially activating by creating a place and a park for the people who live and work on both sides of the strait.
HIGHWAY DECK
— The highway is placed on a defined stretch and will become a high-speed link between Nacka, Värmdö and Stockholm city as well as the region as a whole.
SLENDER PILLARS INTEGRATED IN THE PARK'S GREENERY
— The constructive support required to brace the roadway consists of slen-der, reflective steel composite columns. The pillars are organized accord-ing to a seemingly irregular system which allows them to be integrated among the forest trees.
PARK EXTENSION
— The wild landscape surrounding the bridge grasps the arch, spreading out over the surface. This creates an extension of the neighboring natural and cultural landscape in the form of an attractive park linking Skuru Park with the eastern side of the strait. An extensive trail system connects the bridge to the surrounding areas on the respective sides of the bridge.
LANDSCAPE CONNECTION
— By extending the landscape across the channel along an arch shape, free passage is given to boats, creating a physical link from one shore bank to the other.
LESS ATTRACTIVE AREAS BY THE HIGHWAY
— On both the east and west sides of the Skuru strait there have been formed less attractive areas adjacent to the new highway. An important part of the design of the new bridge is that even in these areas create a positive experience for visitors and residents
THE SOUTHERNMOST OF THE SKURU BRIDGES DEMOLISHED
— The southern and the older of the existing parallel bridges are in very poor condition and must unfortunately be demolished. Most of the traffic will instead follow a new motorway route.
The interaction between the two elements – the straight line of the roadway and the curving arch – form the basis for logical bridge construction as well as for infrastructural and social functions. As an attractive interaction between two simple sculptural forms, as a true embodiment of Vitruvius’s principles of firmitas, utilitas, et venustas: strength, utility and beauty.
Bjarke Ingels Jakob Lange Andreas Klok Pedersen Hanna Ida Johansson Sofia Fors Adolfsson Hans Willehader Igor Brozyna Jeffrey Mark Mikolajewski Jesper Henriksen
COLLABORATORS
Flint & Neill
Kragh & Berglund
Speirs + Major
