Architecture studio William Matthews Associates and engineers Ney & Partners have built a bridge in Cornwall from two 30-metre cantilevered spans that don't quite meet in middle.
Tintagel Castle Bridge is a footbridge over a 190-metre drop between two cliffs that has reconnected two sides of a medieval ruin.
Tintagel Castle Bridge is formed of two 30-metre-long cantilevers
The original bridge between the island and the mainland was lost some time between the 15th and 16th century.
William Matthews Associates and Ney & Partners designed the new bridge to have a 40-millimetre gap in the middle that allows the bridge to expand and contract with the changing temperature.
The bridge connects the Cornish mainland to an island with a medieval castle The cantilevers are made of steel and local slate from the Delabole quarry ? England's oldest working quarry ? is aligned vertically for the pathway. The handrails are made of lengths of oak.
"The footpaths either side are made of slate and quite rustic, and we felt that a very rustic finish on the bridge wasn't really appropriate," studio founder William Matthews told Dezeen.
"So we took the same material, the slate, but used it in quite a fine and more modern way."
There is a 40-millimetre gap in the middle of the bridge. Photo by Jim Holden
Its remote clifftop location, the high winds that the site experiences, and development restrictions imposed by its historic and ecological significance made re-connec...