Pedestrian Bridge Tintra by Rintala Eggertsson Architects
08/06/2016.
[Voss] Norway
metalocus, PALOMA DE LA QUINTANA
metalocus, PALOMA DE LA QUINTANA
The winning team was composed by IKM Steel & Facade, SK Langeland and Rintala Eggertsson Architects, who proposed a bridge in Corten steel lattice and wooden floors, walls and ceilings, supported by the existing pillars of the historic bridge.
Description of the project by Rintala Eggertsson Architects
DESIGN
The design of the new bridge was generated by the idea of a rhythmical play of modules crossing the river in order to break down the timeline into intervals and reduce the monotony when crossing the river. This play of modules would be based on the distance between the already existing pillars in the river, the only remains of the old bridge.
The main steel structure would form the base rhythm and the wooden structure a secondary movement, similar to what you would find in a score for percussion instruments. The two rooms on top of the pillars were therefore used to generate pauses in this otherwise regular rhythm, offering a break from the linear movement across and a possibility of more direct contact with the landscape. They were also ideal as fishing platforms as the two activities would not need to disturb each other anymore.
The old bridge which collapsed in the river flooding was a suspension bridge with a clear visual language. That clarity was an important point of departure for us in the design of the new bridge. But given the two main materials, steel and wood, it became natural to differentiate between the inside and the outside and offer the two materials different roles so to play. The steel would express the raw forces going through the bearing structure on the outside and the other would communicate sensorial information on a human scale on the inside.
MATERIALS
As it often is the case with bridges, maintenance was an important issue for the client. They were therefore very intrigued by the idea of using Corten steel as a main structure and Accoya as a cladding material. That would combine strength, durability and above all no costs of maintenance over the years. They also liked the idea of covering the bridge with a roof, which would eliminate the need for snow ploughing, which can be a complicated issue for pedestrian bridges.
Sami Rintala was born in 1969.He is an architect and an artist, with a long merit list after finishing his architect studies in Helsinki Finland 1999. He established architect office Casagrande & Rintala 1998, which produced a series of acknowledged architectural installations around the world during the next five years until 2003. These works combine architecture with critical thinking of society, nature and the real tasks of an architect, all within a cross-over art field using space, light, materials and human body as tools of expression.
Rintala had his first wider recognition in 1999 with the project Landescape, three abandoned wooden barns were raised on 10 meter high.
In Venice Biennale 2000 Sixty Minute Man was realized; A ship sailed to Arsenal with a garden inside. The park was planted on sixty minutes of human waste from the city of Venice, becoming together with the old boat a three dimensional collage.
In 2008, Rintala started a new architect office with Icelandic architect Dagur Eggertsson, called Rintala Eggertsson Architects. The office is based in Oslo, South Norway and Bodø, North Norway.
Important part of Rintala’s work is teaching and lecturing in various art and architecture universities. Teaching takes place usually in form of workshops where the students often are challenged to participate the shaping of human environment on a realistic 1:1 situation.
Dagur Eggertsson was born in 1965.He is an architect with a professional background from a number of the most prominent offices in Oslo. After his professional degree from the Oslo School of Architecture in 1992, he started his collaboration with architect Vibeke Jenssen, as NOIS architects. In 1996 he finished a post-professional master’s degree at the Helsinki University of Technology, where he started experimentation with building full scale architectonic objects, under the supervision of Professor Juhani Pallasmaa.
Along with his professional practice, Eggertsson has taught architecture in Norway, Iceland and Sweden. He is currently a project examinator at the Oslo School of Architecture.
In 2007, Eggertsson started collaboration with architect Sami Rintala, which resulted in establishment of the office Rintala Eggertsson Architects. The office is based in Oslo and Bodø, Norway.