79
Category 2: Civil Structures
2
Owner
Maritieme Dienstverlening en Kust - Afdeling kust
Architect
West8
General Contractor
Westconstruct
Engineering Office
BAS bvba
Construction Period 02/2013 - 05/2014
The pedestrian bridge is located on the Belgian coast, connecting the
village with the beach and crossing both the coastal road and a double
tram line. The primary structure consists of two irregular timber warren
trusses supported by reinforced concrete portal frames. The trusses are
‘meccano’-like, assembled in different layers which create visual interest
architecturally. These layers also create great eccentricities which form
important secondary moments in transversal direction. The top and
bottom chords are built-up beams, held together by packers which provide
sufficient lateral stability. On each concrete portal there is a steel frame in
between the wooden members which provides overall lateral stability.
The structure, however, is not entirely three-dimensional. The difficult
geometry and eccentricities of the structure require visual and analytical
high performance software. This software makes it possible to analyze
and interpret the secondary effects, and allows for a link between
2-dimensional models and hand calculations.
Maintaining the design of the nodes of the truss, while implementing the
packers at the top and bottom chords proved to be a challenging job
which involved integrating the practical experience of the contractor with
engineering optimization, all the while maintaining the overall design and
architectural detailing. As a result, the bridge is both highly particular, and
structurally unique.
Pedestrian Bridge - Wenduine, Belgium
SE
Contact
Dirk Jaspaert
Address Leopold Ruelensstraat 27
3010 Leuven, Belgium
Website
BAS bvba is primarily known for giving advice on architectural structural
engineering. From the architect’s first conceptual idea onwards, interplay
between spatial form and structural concept will be sought to obtain
maximum coherence. In close collaboration with the architects and other
advising team members, a number of design-cycles are organized to
confront ideas which gradually result in a global concept of coherence
wherein structure is (be it hidden) fully present.
BAS bvba
