Teaching Architects to Design Pedestrian Bridges

This paper outlines the development of bridge design education for undergraduate students of architecture at an international university in China. Key steps taken in this process over the course of five years are analysed and discussed in terms of results obtained as well as feedback given by students. The analysis focuses on key questions facing educators with similar aims, such as: How do architects approach bridge design? How can bridge design be taught as a subject in architecture? Which aspects of bridge design are of greatest interest and of greatest challenge to architectural designers? The paper contributes an educational perspective for cultivating debate in an area of structural design education that is rarely discussed explicitly, and in which precedent literature is scarce. The paper is particularly relevant in the context of China, where bridge design is still mostly seen as an exercise in material and cost efficiency, with few precedents integrating architectural and engineering concerns to a notable degree.

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