Family's Maribor Bridge Proposal

We just posted Family‘s second prize-winning entry for the new Art Gallery in Maribor, Slovenia. Part of the larger ideas competition ‘EPK - DRAVA RIVER 2012’ was also to design a footbridge across the river Drava.

Here’s a project description of the bridge project we received from Family:

Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia, is preparing to become the European Capital of Culture in 2012. Established along the banks of the Drava River, the city is using this opportunity to develop the riverside into a social and cultural focal point. Central to this is the creation of a new pedestrian bridge that will directly connect the North and South shores at the heart of the city, a task long left unattended by the destruction of Maribor’s original footbridge at the beginning of the 20th Century.

The historic bridge, essential to the settlement of Maribor in the 12th Century, was destroyed after the completion of the much larger Glavni Most bridge in 1912. However, because the Glavni Most lands at points high up on the embankments, the direct connection from shore to shore has been lost and activity along the waterside has faded. A new footbridge is key to Maribor’s development of a vibrant and flourishing riverside.

Family’s Central Bridge reestablishes the missing connection with historic reverence for its predecessor. The circular path swings above open water to the west and below the arches of the Glavni Most bridge to the east, preserving the existing piers of the original and providing an unprecedented panoramic experience of the old city and surrounding riverside.

More than a tether between two shores, Central Bridge is as much a destination as it is a piece of infrastructure - a unifying icon for the two halves of a Cultural Capital.

Project Details:
PROJECT: Central Bridge
DATE: 2010
LOCATION: Maribor, Slovenia
PROGRAM: Pedestrian Bridge
CLIENT: Municipality of Maribor, Union of Architects of Maribor, UIA, ZAPS
FAMILY: Oana Stanescu, Dong-Ping Wong
STRUCTURAL: Scott Snelling PE