Live-Bridge Pedestrian Bridge

Wildwood, Missouri
Client: City of Wildwood
Size:120 m span

Live-Bridge attempts to address current issues of technology, ecology and environment through the process of design. Both technology and ecology are ways of locating human activity in the natural environment. To render this environment livable and sustainable we must consider all relevant forces influencing and shaping the architectural object. The goal of this design process is to successfully integrate the synthetic with the natural.

The question is, what is the appropriate technology for the Live-Bridge. The phrase ‘Aesthetic of necessity’ may contain the answer to this question. One of guiding principals for R. Buckminster Fuller was “Do more with less.” Technology is a scaffold for life. Nature is opportunistic. Although most of the built environment is designed without a regard for vegetation or wild life, we often witness the agility of both using the built environment as their habitat. Large birds of prey come to roost on the tops of our downtown landmarks. We propose to design for this cohabitation. We need to design our buildings to grow and live with the natural environment and provide habitats for suitable wildlife cohabitants.

This bridge design attempts to re-connect a self-inflicted distance between culture and nature. Our desire, like that of the City of Wildwood, is that in our care for our fragile environment we design and build economically viable and culturally meaningful stages for human habitation. This habitation is not in isolation from the most precious gift we have been given, but a sort of cohabitation, with plants, birds, and insects.

Our vision for this bridge is that it will grow to become a lush linear garden and an aviary at once. This living bridge will change daily, seasonally and by the passing of each year to reflect the living and thriving community of Wildwood and its collective values.