Architect: Erfan Farahmand, Elmira Jafari, Meysam Amirsadat
Location: Tabriz, Iran
Date: 2018
Status: Competition Proposal / 1st prize winner
Client: Tabriz Municipality
El-Gölü Garden Bridge is envisioned as a pedestrian connector to improve the recreational infrastructure of the south Tabriz. As a tourist attraction destination, it is programmed to offer collective public spaces, restaurants and galleries encouraging population to pass over the bridge and vitalize El-Baghi park which lacks an intimate connection with the city fabric.
Our proposal goes beyond the connecting role of the bridge, to create a recreational circulation at the place and produce a collective space. Initially, the existing pedestrian bridge over the freeway is replaced by one bridge, and the second bridge connects the climaxes of hills; the two bridges are blended to create a continuous loop. The concept highlights the geographical location of the project on top of the city hills, to provide an observatory point towards the city skyline, while creating an urban landmark point.
The internal and external sequential perspectives of the space consist one of the main essences of the concept. The spatial structure of the bridge is basically shaped considering minimum intervention in the natural topography and taking advantage of the existing paths and altitudes, to fluently connect the topographies at the sides. The bridge loop gently merges into the topography and shapes the access paths and terraced spaces on the hills. Collective spaces and sitting spots offering strategic views along the bridge, are protected against the eastern dominant wind by the rolled concrete structure of the bridge.
The structure of the project is based on the site possibilities, economic aspects, ease of construction and aesthetic. Studying different structural systems, post-tensioned reinforced modular structure is proposed for the project. The structure is designed at the same line with the design concept, to avoid heavy industrialized-looking and to softly place it in the context.
