Parametric Green Footbridges in Urban Space. a new Approach to Design Environment-friendly Structures

In the 21st century, digital design tools, which are interfaced with the CNC technology, have opened the new opportunities that not only are shaping structural objects, but also interfering with the urban tissue. The first part of the paper defines the main features of the “green” approach to the built environment. Selected examples illustrate diverse approaches to designing footbridges, and what combines them is the use of digital tools, especially the topological and analytical ones, in shaping and constructing parametric forms. The second part presents how structural engineers and architects can develop a new framework for the urban design by correlating digital morphogenesis and ecology. This integrated “morpho-ecological” approach has resulted in a new kind of eco-friendly bridges, based on the modulation of micro-environmental conditions within an emergent macro-environmental system. The conducted research has presented alternative ideas of efficiency and sustainability.