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Basel-headquartered architect Christ & Gantenbein is celebrating the construction of a new bridge it designed over the Aare River serving the town of Aarau in northern Switzerland.
The completion ends a project begun in 2010 for client, the Aarau district in the Canton of Aargau.
Its design for the latest bridge on a spot that has been a river crossing since Roman times projects simple solidity out of respect for the stone buildings of Aarau’s medieval old town.
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But a closer inspection reveals what the architect calls “a rational, modern arch-like reinforced concrete construction”.
Each of the five arches on the 119m-long structure is a different width. Their footings rest on two submerged caissons left from the former concrete bridge built in 1949, which replaced one built in 1848.
Christ & Gantenbein notes that all the elements of the monolithic supporting structure – pillar foundations, pillars, arches, flanks, roadway, parapets – participate in load-bearing, leading, says the firm, “to an optimized and thus sustainable structure” that “employs concrete sparingly”.
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The bridge carries two traffic lanes, two footpaths, and cycle tracks on its 17.5m-wide deck.
Travellers enter the old town from the bridge on the southern riverbank. There, a spacious urban promenade with a square for lounging under shady trees is taking shape.
On the northern riverbank the bridge gives onto meadows and local vegetation.
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The New Aare Bridge “discerningly contributes another layer to the evolution of our urban environment”, Christ & Gantenbein concluded.
Credits:
Architecture: Christ & Gantenbein
General management: Ingenieurgemeinschaft Pont Neuf (WMM Ingenieure AG, Henauer Gugler AG)
Landscape architecture: August + Margrith Künzel Landschaftsarchitekten AG