A little while ago i mentioned the Brunel 200 Clifton Crossing Competition 2006. I wasn’t really supposed to say anything back then about the entry because the entries are annonymous and secretive. But now the finalists and entries have been announced I would like to take this opportunity to go into a little more detail about the entry which my team entered.
I’m not too sure whether it reflects what the judges thought of our entry, or just the time at which we sent it in, but our entry appears on the last page of the entries pages (number 968). The entry started off with an idea to reflect things going on within the city of bristol onto and into the bridge design. The idea was that the bridge design incorporated the bad and the good things within the city and reflected this within the aesthetic nature of the bridge and possibly the function. This soon turned into reflecting the amount of cars travelling into and out of the city each day.
The bridge design we came up with does not differ from Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s bridge at all. Many of the materials he used were recycled. We decided to keep the original design and then reflect the city’s car usage onto the bridge with blue and red lights, aiming to promote a ‘cool blue’ colour in order to attract people to use their cars less.
click here to view the larger image
The text we entered with the competition is as follows:
The “Environmental Strain Gauge�
Brunel spanned further, built bigger and built better than ever before. He solved the social and economic problems of his time. His pioneering engineering set the standard for two centuries of incredible achievements, social change and economic growth; linking communities and fuelling industry. It wasn’t easy, or fashionable, but it was right. Now we have to get it right too.
Simply “updating� the original brief to suit modern traffic ignores the vastly different problems of our own era: resource depletion and environmental conservation. We can of course build a fabulous, iconic bridge using lightweight, recycled materials and sustainable technologies. We can hugely reduce the environmental impact of the bridge compared to that of a standard structure, but we’d be solving the wrong problem. The environmental benefits of our best engineering would be squandered in just 11 days(1) by the thousands driving daily between Bath and Bristol(2) alone. It would be an utterly futile effort.
Engineers have a leading role in solving our planet’s environmental problems, but we cannot go it alone. The men in white coats won’t solve the problems. Engineers won’t keep providing for more cars to make your life more convenient. Walk. Cycle. Carshare. Get a bus. Don’t expect a bigger bridge.
We’d keep Clifton Suspension Bridge exactly as it is and use our engineering intervention to create a giant “environmental strain gauge� to promote this agenda to the audience which really matters.
This is a low cost, high impact scheme with long-term vision. Road traffic is first, but when targets are met, energy consumption and waste production can be next. It’s an inspiring scheme: before long the London Eye, the Blackpool Tower, the Angel of the North could all become environmental impact gauges.
Engineering in the last two hundred years was to build more and build bigger to improve lives and gather more wealth. The next two centuries are about innovative and responsible engineering; about fostering co-operation to protect our livelihoods and our planet.
In an age of instant information, let’s give Bristol a landmark which displays the city’s performance in reducing traffic and environmental impact. Car journeys in the city will be monitored and progress displayed with a light display on the bridge. Angry red gives way to cool blue as the city’s impact decreases.
Clifton Suspension Bridge, already the icon of Bristol, will become a new symbol of Bristol as a city at the forefront of modern, responsible engineering, with proud Bristolians demonstrating that everyone has a part to play in saving our way of life.
We propose to create a website and educational resources which show how to turn the bridge cool blue. Schools and businesses can buy into the visible target. Peer pressure, with children lobbying parents and employees lobbying employers, will cause real change. Engineers will lead the way and provide the technological means to make community action count.
200 years after Brunel first led the way in Bristol, it’s time again for Bristol do the right thing.
1. Simplified calculation based on Eco-Indicator 99 Manual for Designers.
2. Data based on 2001 census results modified for 2006 road usage.
If we take a look at the board in more detail, we tried to emphasise that it was as much the responsibility of the engineer, as it was of everyone in the community to take part and contribute to making the bridge a cool blue.
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Various points around the City of Bristol were targeted as points where the number of cars would be calculated. These would be fed through a computer and then by taking an average of the change in car flow the lights on the bridge would be affected.
As you can see from the image below, lots of people using lots of cars would make the bridge an ugly red. Car sharing and using one vehicle for many people would help to ease congestion and pollution. Finally, cycling and walking to and from work and school is the prime way to travel, getting some fresh air, leaving the car at home and helping the environment.
click here to view the larger image
So there we have it. As a part of a four man team, this is what we put together. Part of me wishes that we took the route of designing an extremely cool bridge which looked like it should have won, but then the real answer to this brief should have been to communicate the message that we cannot keep living the way we are. Something needs to be done and everyone needs to take responsibility.
this is an excelient project - bravi,,, I feel the presentation was a little agrissive, and understand why the jury were afraid to comend it. - maybe a more family emotional realated scenario… oh - from a distance we see the bride blue - means - it ok for the child to cycle to school, as CO22 is low…
there is an italian artist Alberto garutti who has a lighting project connecting the lights in a public place/bridge/park… to the local maternity hostipal, when the lights become more intence for 30 seconds, the public observe, it means a new baby has been born,,, is it art or information … ma bello … buon lavora… till then