Introduction
The Nature Conservation Agency of Latvia paired up with Bee Breeders to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Gauja National Park - the country's largest national park at 90,000 hectares - by challenging architects and designers with submitting proposals for a footbridge marking the park's entry. The footbridge is intended to serve as an architectural landmark that adds to the park's existing collection of 500 cultural and historical monuments, including medieval castles and towns.
The competition called for a footbridge which can span an existing roadway, at an elevation high enough to allow cars and trucks to pass below. The submissions responded with an extensive array of design concepts. Several sought means of introducing verticality into the design to offer viewing platforms. Others focused on drawing from natural forms or elements, such as leaves, trees, and hills. A broad range of material and structural concepts were tested, including cable-supported decks, simple horizontal slabs, and systems supported by trusses.
The jury members sought solutions with structural integrity, those that could offer pedestrians unique opportunities for viewing, as well as those with the potential to become a symbolic new entry and exit point for visitors traveling through the park by vehicle. Sustainable and minimally invasive proposals were looked highly upon. When designing a pedestrian bridge, architects often focus on complex formal solutions to solve the rather simple problem of spanning a gap to connect point A with point B. The jury felt strongly that the most successful forms were those that also offered experiential new ways of discovering the park.
Bee Breeders thanks all designers that took part in this design ideas competition. The quality of the imagery and structural concepts was high. And many of the proposals submitted have the capacity to offer Gauja Park the new architectural landmark it deserves.
1st Prize Winner
Flow: Between City and River
As a test and as a means to train instincts and refine intuition.
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Australia
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Troll’s Tongue Observation Platform
2nd Prize Winner
Gauja National Park Footbridge
Lebanon
3rd Prize Winner
THE BARK BRIDGE
Italy
BB GREEN AWARD +
BB STUDENT AWARD
BB STUDENT AWARD
Gauja Park Gateway
Honorable mentions
Shortlisted projects
Gauja National Park Footbridge
Greece
Gauja National Park Footbridge
Hide and Reveal
The Flowing Bridge
Plakans Bridge
A Branch Between the Thicket
Gauja National Park Footbridge
Archventure Bridge
The Gauja OverView
EMPTY TRUNK
Forest Flux
An Extension of the Forest
"Symbol-ic"
Woodland BRIDGE/PATH/CABIN
Passage.
Butterfly Timber Bridge
Natures waves
Yarn Bifröst
Scaling in the Woods
Motion in the Woods
Flow: Between City and River
DaVinci Bridge
TAXONOMY OF BRIDGES FOR GAUJA NATIONAL PARK--HEAVY TIMBER INFRASTRUCTURE
fatorzs
Gauja Park Gateway
THE BARK BRIDGE
Wooden way bridge
LĪKUMOTS BRAUKT
Project ID 17390
THE FROG. A hybrid wooden footbridge for Gauja National Park
Gauja river bridge
Wooded Pathway
Gauja LifeFrame
Gauja Trinity at Gauja National Park
Suspended Connection
Gauja National Park Footbridge
GAUJA RECYCLE BIRD NEST BRIDGE
Transience
Gauja National Park Footbridge
Connect Parks Bridge
Enter Gauja
Seethrough Footbridge
Gauja National Park Footbridge
Adventures of the oval in the park
The Two Souls Bridge
Fortified footbridge
gauja riverbridge
The Media For Both Sides
Gauja Never-Ending Bridge
Embrace
