What is Good Bridge Design? Bridges You Can Touch

Nothing restricts imagination more than rules and regulations which state "It has to be done like this." Of course when you are designing and building a pedestrian bridge for instance you have to know and to use the experience gained from designing road bridges and rail bridges. You should then detach yourself from them, so that you are not restricted to the few forms that have become generally accepted in the field. Restrictions that are imposed by fast traffic and the economic constraints imposed by a materialistic society, which do tend to kill creativity.

Big bridges for traffic, are experienced from a distance like a sunset, but pedestrian bridges are confronted head on — you can walk over them and you can touch them. They are part of the furniture of a city, and sculpture in an unspoilt landscape.So pedestrian bridges must be on a human scale, slender and filigree, but built just as durably and as easy to maintain as big bridges.