London architecture studio WilkinsonEyre and Copenhagen-based Urban Agency have designed the Lille Langebro bicycle bridge as a convenient route across Copenhagen's inner harbour for cyclists and pedestrians.
The steel bridge, which can open to admit boats, was commissioned by Danish charity organisation Realdania and sits next to its OMA-designed Blox arts centre project.
The bridge has a clean, sculptural shape
It complements the nearby busy highway Langebro bridge ? Lille Langebro means "little" Langebro, which means long bridge ? and creates a more tranquil way of crossing the harbour.
WilkinsonEyre and Urban Agency designed Lille Langebro to have a clean, sculptural shape.
"We felt that clean lines as opposed to more normal articulated trussed structures would be appropriate in the Copenhagen context," WilkinsonEyre co-founder and director Jim Eyre told Dezeen. Its design was informed by the surrounding neighbourhood
"We therefore set out to design a bridge that in its normal day to day use would read as a simple elegant form stretching across the water," Eyre said.
Its slight curve was informed by the way that the street and the old ramparts of the Christianshavn neighbourhood curve away on the far side of the harbour, and draws attention to the historical layout of the city.
Lille Langebro traverses the inner harbour
"This plan curve then combines with a twisting of the surfaces of the edge beams that support the bridge, so that the...