Odense Foot and Bicycle Bridge

This paper deals with the design process - the collaborate effort of engineer and architect. The programme called for a new bridge to serve pedestrians and cyclists, creating a route across the many railway lines of Odense Station and provide access to the platforms. The bridge was to be a landmark visible from the trains and the city.

The technical challenge was building across a busy railway station. We analysed a series of bridge types - arch bridges, cable-stayed bridges and suspension bridges. Their elegance and poetry however would not come to their own right in the visually flimsy railway environment.

We hence decided for an option with volume – with body. A girder bridge with varying structural depth. We were searching for a solution that would underscore the fluidity of movement from ramps to bridge to ramps. We wanted to stage different views and experiences in the crossing – intimacy, openness and shelter.

We developed a simple “tubular” cross section consisting of two similar basket handle arcs. The cross section is scaled up and down as it is “extruded” along an S-curved centre line of the bridge. By cutting away material, open and closed forms of varying degrees were created.