Che Monro - Cathedral Bridge

[chemonro]

Hi,

My name is Che Monro, from Melbourne Australia. I'm a computer technician, visual artist and game scenery designer for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Recently I've been working on a large space station called Starbase Pacifica.



When I saw this contest I thought "oh wow, why don't I do a space station?" because the architectural possibilities of zero-g are just amazing. However it has to be current technology, and the fact is that we just don't have the technology right now to build really interesting space architecture. We haven't even built O'Neil's L5 space colony yet, and it was designed 30 years ago!

So focussing back on current technology I came up with the concept of a grand, monumental bridge. I've been inspired by a novel by Iain M Banks called "The Bridge" where he has people living in a grand steel bridge like the Forth rail bridge.



My idea is a vast suspended bridge using cable-tied construction and apartment towers in the piers. I draw my artistic/aesthetic inspiration from the gothic cathederals with their thrusting, geometric spires. The style of the towers will also borrow something from the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai and the Kuala Lumpur twin towers.

Construction will be pre-stressed concrete with savings in design and manufacture by the standardization of geometric components throughout the four towers. It'll make computer modelling a lot quicker and easier too.

Here's my concept sketch, I've uploaded it to the gallery where it's waiting approval but in the meantime it's in my photobucket acount. I'm not sure if this is allowed? I can delete it.



Che

[TheAllusionist]

Che,
Welcome to the contest! You had me worried when I opened the thread and saw a space station, thought I was going to have to rain on somebodies parade, but quickly saw by the rest of the post that you understood the contest assignment

the sketch in the gallery wasn't approved, it isn't part of the process, only your final image is uploaded into the contest gallery. What you want to do is attach your images, when in the advanced edit mode (in new thread or select the 'Go Advanced' button when editing a post), there is the option to 'Manage Attachments' below the text edit box, using that you can upload images to our servers and that way your entry will stay intact over time.

Looking forward to seeing your concept progress, welcome to the forums!

[pradipta]

Che, nice concepts you got but need o more about the sketch and the sroty behindmaking this bridge fr the contest. Glad to hear you worked with Microsoft Flight Simulator your skecth is nice free flowing bit need some more details before we can make any comments. keep us posted with more updates... good luck

[pBarrelas]

Very nice and interesting concept you have there!! let me tell you that with your background, i bet your entry will rock!!

[chemonro]

The first step in realizing my design is to decide on a scale, because suspension bridges are scalable objects - they work at any size. I've decided to go with a tower height of 350m - 8m higher than the Millau Viaduct - but well within current technology. This gives me a span of around 1km, a little smaller than the Golden Gate bridge. I'm going to use Sydney's Hawksbury River as my geographic modelling location because it's about the right size. It would actually be more spectacular to put a bridge across the heads of Sydney Harbor, but the approaches would need to curve and the span is 1.5kms. I'm just not sure how tall the towers would need to be to support such a span, I think that with the scale I'm using now everything is possible. I don't want to desing a model that's going to fall down!

PS Acutally probably what I need to do is drop the roadway down to say 100m height. That will give me a better angle on the support cables and ensure the practicality of the structure.

[chemonro]

The towers are the most important part of the bridge. All of their weight is borne by a massive concrete foundation, sixty meters across. I've decided to go with a hexagonal design and build the skelleton first and then work on the non structural elements.

Six fifty meter long concrete posts are the main structural elements of the lower section of the tower. This is topped by a hexagon of girders to hold things together. I'm not 100% sure how these would be joined so I've put in "collar nuts" which could represent a number of possible joining methods.

Two of these 50m high sections will be required to reach the road deck level. This lower section will eventually contain a parking garage. The central black utility core is 5m across and rises the full 350m of the tower. It carrys sewerage and electricity pipes and is surrounded by lift shafts.

[pBarrelas]

Very nice Che!! I like your concept a lot. Nice start

[chemonro]

Thanks for the kind feedback, guys!

From the road deck up the structure becomes simpler. The cylinders taper into cones sloping inwards to a point 350m above the ground. I've added a number of solid decks for structural stability. There will be another couple of larger ones for achitectural reasons before all is done. The other floors need only really be self supporting, and will be made of steel. The structure is topped by a golden metal cap piece.

The resemblance to a cathederal spire should now be obvious!

Che

[TheAllusionist]

Great to see you modeling now, what software are you using?

[pBarrelas]

We want more, we want more!!!!
Hey Russell, from the screenshots, we can see that is Max he's using!!