Form and Function

Form and Function are two factors of a design that must be somewhat compatible to create a successful structure. In this project we redesigned a bridge to open and close using a custom designed function. The function is based off of a customized version of an everyday object to create a unique and visually pleasing structure.

Design Criteria

Pedestrian bridge

Physically handicapped accessible

No slope greater than 1:12.

Span = 190'; Width = 12'; Clearance = 40'; Max. Height = 100’

No Structural members can be longer than 20’ and shall be 1’ x 1’

Prototypes

I chose these three different bridges to try to design an opening mechanism for.

These are the three objects i chose to use as the opening mechanism on the bridge. The egg beater i used the gears and spinning rods from. The wine opener i used the cork screw on the spinning rods.

3x3 Grid

Preliminary Design

From the 3x3 grid i chose these two designs to work off of. Both seemed to have a lot of room for a transformation and could be manipulated to open and close in an interesting manner.

Final Design

Closed

Open

Animation