unit-code
‘I am opposed to the laying down of rules or conditions to be observed in the construction of bridges lest the progress of improvement tomorrow might be embarrassed or shackled by recording or registering as law the prejudices or errors of today.’
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 1847
The English civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was opposed to the dogma of bridge design – should we be too? This was the question that provoked this year’s thematic exploration of bridging. It also set the unit’s overarching interest in finding relationships between the bridge as a life-supporting infrastructure at two scales: the microbiome and the biosphere.
Instruments of life
With the human body becoming a site for interrogation and response, students collaborated with a consultant gastroenterologist to design and engineer micro infrastructure to connect with the human microbial biome. Projects reworked a critical medical instrument with the purpose of bridging the gap between the tropospheric biome and the gastrointestinal biome.
Stream of consciousness
The infrastructures of London are vast, and are equally connected and isolated. The social and economic effects of infrastructure-led planning are key factors in the way London has grown programmatically, with the negative consequence of economic and social divides between the North and South of the Thames. While social and economic parity slowly improves, infrastructure continues to divide. Programmed public space is separated by five hundred metres of bridge. Narrow footpaths mean that bridge crossings are often parts of the city to endure rather than enjoy. It is time for private car-centric infrastructures and the city street to be reviewed, particularly in light of predicted changes to climate and the consequences of a wetter future city.
Following a field trip to Venice, Unit 6 have built a research position that explores alternatives to the singular function of the bridge as infrastructure – making speculative proposals for a new typology of bridge across the Thames. Projects present ideas for habitable bridges that deal with complex spatial, structural and environmental challenges and adapt existing structures. As precise as they are provocative, each building is speculatively and imaginatively designed for a wetter future.