World's First Sustainable Shape Shifting Bridge
Sanzpont Arquitectura have released astounding plans for the first ever solar powered shape shifting bridge; the design is already the winner of many industry design awards.
The architecture firm, known for their innovative design schemes, have a long history of sustainable design; this feat arguably their most efficient and spectacular yet.
The Dynamic Shape Shifting Helix (DSSH) Bridge, the first of its kind, is a low energy infrastructure project located in Montreal, Canada.
The project is explain through three different, yet correlating areas. The first is labelled “Dynamic Reaction”. This is the process whereby the actual materials of the bridge respond to individuals using it. The materials used have been described as tensile and flexible in their quality, “by applying more tension to different points, a technological deformation can be achieved”. The modular design, with its tensile membrane structural materials, creates an infrastructure piece with an organic illusion.
The second point of focus throughout the design brief has been placed on “Sustainable Design”. Disagreements on which design area is most prominent and excellent will be disagreed on, but there is not arguing the ingenuity behind this particular sector of the bridge’s design.
Inside the membranous skin of the structure, foldable photovoltaic solar panels capture the sunlight that directly hits the bridge and channels this into sustainable energy. Taking this aspect even further is the floor of the bridge which houses plants underneath the clear, breathable, membranous surface, in turn purifying the air in the direct vicinity. Not only is this a fantastic anti-pollutant, it is a beautiful design feature that truly adds to the organic ambience of DSSH.
The Final aspect of the bridge is the “LED RGB Technology” features. This aspect takes the structure from sustainable innovation to state of the art design feature. At night the lights change colour in an elegantly unusual artistic display. The low energy lighting feature was created in order to “emphasise the fluid and organic form” of the structure, while creating an emphasis on its liquidity.
While DSSH has not released cost explanations as yet, experts in the area estimate that a structure of this form, with these specific design aspects and capabilities, would come with a high price tag.
This project is a complete mix of award winning excellence, innovative sustainability processes and futuristic design eloquence. By incorporating and culminating these three, often very separate design initiatives, it is possible to create a structure that is not lacking in any aspect.
Sanzpont Arquitectura have joined the ranks of architects that have emphasised the fact that sustainable design doesn’t have to mean a loss of artistic freedom. In fact, these architects are proving exactly the opposite. The industry is increasingly seeing this correlation of excellence in design as well as sustainability, innovation becoming the buzz word in the liquid environment that is architecture and design.
DSSH is a feat that is rare in the design world, and should be used as an example of what we can expect coming into a new generation of the architecture process.
