Design Developement

This design was done with my classmate Chao-Chun, and the local students I met during the exchange in Germany. Every Sunday, the Taiwan-German online meeting discusses design projects and international competitions, which is my weekly routine.

Cooperative works

Specially thanks to Chao-Chun Kung and Pei-Chun Lee. This was a team collaborative work with them. I was in charged of the research, design concept, design developement, text writing, layout editing and movie editing.

Design Outline

‘Urban Oasis’ also means ‘green boat in the city’ in Chinese. The bridge is designed to emulate a contemporary Noah's Ark, with trees and flowers planted to extend the greenery from the park side. Constructed with simple steel truss system, brick barrier and a wooden pathway, a rainwater filtration system (pipes integrated into the trusses) runs along the bridge to irrigate the plants. Since the bridge cuts across two-way intersection, it is designed to be structurally safe without affecting the visibility of the road. On one side of the road is a popular commercial and shopping district, and on the other side is a school and park. Urban Oasis Bridge provides peaceful pedestrian accessibility in a busy and stressful commercial district.

Movie (Youtube)

Design Concept

Urban Oasis Bridge is a proposed pedestrian bridge located near Daan Park, Taipei City. Shaped like a crescent moon, the midsection of the bridge curves to make contact with the building (to provide accessibility) and the roof of the bridge serves as a connecting garden space that also insulates the building’s occupants from urban noise. Urban Oasis Bridge is an extended urban garden that contributes to the sustainable development the city in mitigating urban heat island effect.

Site and Issue

The form of the city will be changed in the next 50 years. More and more nursing homes will appear in cities. On the other hand, urban city always need more trees to keep the environment vitality. The roads block people's connection to nature. Sustainable development is an issue that all cities should participate in. Facing environmental changes and the urban heat island effect, we extend the urban garden by bridges to solve this problem. The shape of Urban Oasis forms like a new moon, which makes the middle of the bridge very close to another building with a garden on the second floor. It became a very strong connection between the garden and park. Aside from this, it can also insulate the school from the noise, which keep the school comfort and quiet.

Taiwan has abundant rainfall, but it is still listed as one of the world's water-stressed countries. It is hoped that water resources can be effectively used through rainwater recycling.

First of all, the rainwater will be collected into the circulation system along with the inclined paving, and the plants on the bridge will be irrigated. The steel structure of the bridge is combined with rainwater recovery pipes. In this way, rainwater can be collected along the pipeline to the underground water tank. After filtering, the water collected in the water tank can be filtered for citizens to enjoy.

Structure

The Bridge was construct with steel truss support, brick armrest and wooden path. With the simple steel truss system, it can be both stable and full of aesthetic. The walking path and brick armrest makes the bridge become a beautiful Chinese traditional garden which is called "Yuanlin".

In order to be structurally safe and not affect the visibility of the road, we reduce the depth of the truss above the driveway and deepen the depth of the structure in the park and commercial areas.

Specially thanks to Chao-Chun Kung, Wei-Che Lin and Chi-Lyun Chern. This was a team collaborative work with them. I was in charged of design developement, diagrams drawing, and layout editing.