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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 26.04.2024, 15:43

Latvian architectural firm wins competition for Tallinn Old City Harbor bridge

BC, Tallinn/Riga, 14.07.2017.Print version
A project titled "New Balance 100" drawn up by the Latvian architectural firm SIA Witteveen + Bos Latvia has been declared the winner of an idea competition announced by the Port of Tallinn for the design of a pedestrian bridge planned in the Old City Harbor, informs LETA/BNS.

The competition was held with the aim of finding the best innovative, architectural and conceptual solution for a pedestrian bridge to be built over the channel of the Admiralty Inlet, and received nine anonymous projects which fit the criteria, the Port of Tallinn said.

 

The winner of the competition was a conceptual design titled "New Balance 100," which outshone other projects with its beautiful engineering solution, in which large power games have been brought forward and exposed. Different opening mechanisms have been suggested for the perpendicularly and diagonally located bridge. The project offers a well thought through and traditional bridge with a modern twist. The bridge offers for interesting views both when open and when closed.


Members of the evaluation panel of the competition included Peeter Nogu and Hele-Mai Metsal from the Port of Tallinn, Endrik Mand, deputy head of the City of Tallinn urban planning authority, Tomomo Hayashi and Urmas Muru, representatives of the Estonian Association of Architects, and Siim Idnurm, professor emeritus at the Tallinn University of Technology.

 

Three of the nine projects were picked by the panel to receive prizes, while one work was mentioned.

 

Second place was given to a project titled "Golden Crane" by Salto AB OU. The solution of the company stood out for its simplicity, which merges the history of the port, recycling and functional transformation, in which a crane necessary for the loading of goods at the port has been turned into a lifting mechanism for the bridge.

 

Third place was given to a project titled "Silmad" ("Eyes") by OU Stuudio Tallinn, whose work offered a technically special "two in one" solution with an effective design, which has the effect of an attraction in which the bridge's counterweights and the functioning of them have been exposed.

 

The Port of Tallinn is planning to build a bridge across the channel of the Admiralty Inlet in order to allow for the more comfortable movement of pedestrians in between two passenger terminals and areas bordering the terminals. The bridge will be movable in order to ensure the future functioning of the Old City Harbor marina. The aim of the Port of Tallinn is that the bridge would also act as an attractive architectural object in the area in order to improve the surrounding urban space.

 

The bridge is expected to be finished at the end of 2018. The idea competition, further design and construction will be co-financed by the European Union in the framework of a Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) project.






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