Over the Spree river bridge competition in Berlin | Sebastiano Boni

THE PERFORMING ART BRIDGE __ The bridge: the conjunction of two sides. The bridge is the first element of aggregation of the urban agglomeration. The bridge is an image of passage, a path line. In this case the bridge tries to boost his "concepts" (features / privileges), by becoming a strong interaction moment between itself and the user. The passage leads to an event. Its crossing generates a luminescent sequence of colours transforming the passage in a moment of performing art: "The Performing Art Bridge." The structural elements, distributed on the four main sides, are positioned to create a "enclosing" effect. The multiple intersections of the linear elements generate different plane polygonal shapes, which will be filled with translucent polycarbonate panels of various colours. During the day, the daylight beams coloured shadows on the water surface in motion and on the deck. During sunny days the radiation invests the overlapping panels creating projections of colours, as a sum of each single panel colour. This is similar to what happens on the painter's palette, mixing single colours to generate new ones. At sunlight, the elapsing of time moves the coloured shadows in different chromatic sequences and in different positions with constantly changing colours. By night, the characteristically chromatic value changes its “soul”: the coloured plastic panels will be equipped with independently auto lighting LEDs. Five passage sensors will be placed at regular intervals along the axe of the bridge deck. They will be connected to a hardware controller, which enlightens randomly the panels. In this way, the user’s crossing, by foot or by bicycle, will trigger different switching series, which will accompany the user during his crossing with different light effects and combinations (fig.1;2 sequence). The user’s crossing turns the bridge into an artistic performance giving to the city a strong new Landmark. Another "concept" that differences this bridge is its characteristic to combine at the same time permanence and crossing. Taking advantage of the height of the lateral extruded steel box girders, it possible to create a continuous wooden seating system positioned on both sides of the bridge (fig.3;4). The system is extended for the entire length of the deck and gives everyone the opportunity to sit everywhere on the length of the bridge. The floor is made of marine grooved wood planks. All the main structure is made of white painted steel The bridge is not just a way to cross the river, but also a place where to chill and join the chromatic effects on the water surface.

With ing. Stefano Cammareri