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Architects: FAR WORKSHOP
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:Biosphere
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Lead Architects: Mangyuan Wang
Text description provided by the architects. Folio Bridge, one of the seven bridges in Fuxian, Moganshan. Far workshop won two pedestrian bridges in the 2022 Seven Bridges International Competition. Folio Bridge is one of them.
Like a sheet of paper: Folio Bridge originates from the imagination of an A4 sheet of paper. How can a piece of paper achieve a certain mechanical strength just by a few creases, while also maintaining the paper's own light and slightly fragile contrast. After testing various possibilities of creases, we chose the idea of achieving the bridge span with just one crease. In the modeling process, we confirmed the bridge body form by fitting three construction curves and one construction point to the crease. In collaboration with Zhang Zhun's Structural Research Institute, we repeatedly adjusted the curvature of the three construction lines and the position of the construction point above to find the best distribution of forces.
Like a mountain: Due to the steep slope of the final determined bridge body, we abandoned the possibility of allowing pedestrians to directly ascend the bridge surface. The bulging bridge surface, we saw the mountain to the west. Or we could let people walk on this bridge as if walking on a mountain path, a slender stepping path is placed on the bridge surface, with a mountain as massive as it is as thin as paper. To minimize the visual interference of the stepping path's solid sense on the bridge body itself, we used slender high-strength threaded steel bars as the single material to complete the material integration from support to step and handrail.
Construction: The entire bridge spans 15.825 meters. Due to the complex curves of the bridge body, the construction side made a positioning frame according to the design section in advance. The bridge body was divided into multiple steel plates with different curvatures, which were manually bent and adjusted by a press machine. Finally, they were spatially positioned and welded as a whole through the pre-made frame. The threaded steel bar path was installed afterwards. Due to the unique structural characteristics of this bridge, a load test was conducted on-site before it was put into use. A thin sheet of 'paper' is folded into a 'massive mountain', and slender steel bars are bent into 'mountain paths'. A paper bridge in fact is discussing the unique spatial experience evoked by the extreme structure, which creates a visual and physical experience contrast. Through this contrast, it awakens people's perception of the bridge's distinctive space.
