Dommel Bridge Eindhoven

An urban beacon

An urban garden has been created on the shores of the river Dommel, next to the Van Abbe Museum in the city of Eindhoven. A slender footbridge joins both shores and makes the garden whole. The bridge describes an elegant arch, both in the plan and in the elevation. The structural load bearing element and the deck have merged into one sculptural and minimalist shape. The stiffness of this element is derived from the foil structure on the inner curve of the deck. The parapet on the outer curve of the bridge is abstract and minimalist. A fluent line of glass panels follows the shape of the deck. At the base detail of this parapet a line of light illuminates the deck and the foil in a gentile way. The light is composed out of computer driven RGB colored LED's that vary in intensity. This way the colour of the bridge goes through the whole light spectrum in a period of 10 minutes.

Data

Client

Municipality of Eindhoven

Dimensions

Free span 40 meter

Period

2005 - 2006

Disciplines

Architecture

Landscape architecture

Projectmanagement

Projectteam

Joris Smits with Alessandro De Santis