The New Frontier

By Tom Gregory

The nature and faces of our cities are rapidly changing, through expansion and continual developments. A few years ago we surpassed a global population figure of 7 billion and just before that we reached the point in which the majority of us live in an urban environment. Although this recent urban growth has been mostly concentrated in Africa and Asia, we in the West have already been dominated by the city, to a point of saturation in many cases.

Through the densification of our cities, there is a great urge and pressure to create large developments at a quick pace. The funding of these structures are very often from larger bodies, with power and influence in developing their scheme. The very nature of the procurement process of these buildings and the pattern of their commission means that they are often purely icons; their only driver in the commissioning of them apart from cost is a marketable silhouette outline. These icons are by their very definition alien to the surroundings in which they sit, as they are referenced only by themselves.

Dredge’s work has hugely contributed to our understanding of suspension and cable stayed bridges. Unfortunately, most of his bridges have collapsed: there are some remaining, like the Aberchalder Bridge in Fort Augustus, Scotland, but most are closed due to their poor condition.

Now that the Western Riverside Development is underway, the plan is to repair the bridge and fully integrate it to a higher quality surrounding environment. It has been decided to keep the elegant inclined hanger design. At an expected cost of £3.5million, this will bring back the bridge’s old glory and continue its landmark history.

But Dredge’s design is bound to fail again in the long term. A simple solution would be to disconnect one of the hangers in each pair and strengthen the other one so that the triangular form is avoided. What is the role of the Engineer and the Architect in this case? Do you keep spending money and resources on a flawed design in the grounds of aesthetics and history, or do you pursue new ways of satisfying both beauty and structural efficiency?

Do you change Victoria bridge or not?

Although the scale of these structures isn’t necessarily a recent phenomenon, the rapid development and the perceived lack of control over them means that there is ultimately not a great deal of knowledge of their potential impact on their surroundings, both in a negative and positive way. The result of this is an urban landscape that often feels incredibly alien, detached in scale and materiality, even to residents living locally.

As we move forwards, we must readdress our relationship with the urban centres we have created, looking to re-engage with the inhabitants who occupy them on a more personal scale. We have created an alien urban landscape in many of our cities, but now is the time when we can reshape them. In creating an urban environment that is both sustainable ecologically and socially, we can use these cities to shape our future outlook, rather than be governed by a machine that has run out of control.