Bridging Disciplines

One of the challenges of using standardized geometry is how to create a variety of forms. Dutch designer Marijke de Goey shows what can be achieved in her radical design for a small pedestrian bridge over two artificial lakes at the Alan Gibbs Trust Park in Auckland, New Zealand. De Goey originally learnt how to make sculptural objects through her training as a jewellery designer. Her work includes the bridal tiara for the recent royal wedding of Dutch crown prince Alexander to Maxima Zorreguieta. Made of white gold and diamonds, the tiara is shaped like two bridges to fit across the bride’s forehead.

For the New Zealand project, the miniature is powerfully transformed into the monumental. Using 22 welded tubular steel cubes each measuring 3 x 3 x 3m to support an aluminium walkway, de Goey elaborates on the basic concept of linked cuboid forms. The walkway winds in a decidedly perilous fashion between the cubic steel skeleton, which makes the simple matter of traversing the bridge an adventure not for the fainthearted. Completing the slightly surreal tableau, the water of the lake has been coloured an intense blue using environmentally friendly pigment.

Engineered by Peter Boardman, the structure weighs 11 tons and was transported to site in two prefabricated sections by a Russian helicopter. (Due to adverse weather conditions the pilot was forced to land in a private field, much to the surprise of a local farmer and his cows, who proceeded to lick the structure, showing a surprising measure of bovine aesthetic appreciation)