The commission was to design a pedestrian link from a new development on the Leamouth Peninsula in London over a 100m wide section of the River Lea and multiple rail lines, to Canning Town station.
The design was constrained by clearance requirements over the river, railway and power lines, as well as pre-defined access levels to the station rotunda and the new development.
The studio’s proposal is divided into two portions: a suspended bridge spanning the river Lea, connecting to a beam based landscaped bridge spanning the rail lines. The suspended bridge element responded to the opportunity presented by two mixed-use towers adjacent to the bridge abutment. The idea is to borrow from this already needed structure to support the bridge deck from the towers themselves, not from columns that visually duplicate the towers.
The structure uses 20mm thick, 800mm wide mirror-polished ribbons of stainless steel as an alternative to the conventional suspension cables that are used on suspension structures. These extend out from the buildings’ facades, twisting to support the pre-cast concrete walkway. The ribbons are perforated by circular holes, acting as vibration dampening and adding a finer grain of detail.
The proposal was developed through to the end of the detail design stage (RIBA stage D).