Art Portfolio: Musi river bridge design competition research

Today, I want to show you my new inspiration. This is a competition prototype of a bridge for the Musi River. The government wanted to rebuild an old construction and created a competition to choose a different architectural organisation to do a concept and the best one they will build.

A brief on the design competition on Bridge design over Musi river Dt: 29.09.2021, organized by HRDCL

First, what caught my eye is the minimalistic, not fashionable design, but it has something special. It's not very complicated; however, the arch looks interesting. For me, it reminds me of a church, and I never really saw something like that before. Probably, that's the main factor. This bridge looks unusual but is minimalistic and perfectly balanced. That is what my design does not have. That gave me the thought that maybe everything is not balanced because I overload my design with a large number of ideas. When I looked at another concept image of this bridge, I noticed that I really like how the semicircle looks. It gives it a fresh look. I am thinking of interpreting it in my sketch. I already had thoughts about removing the glass balls and maybe changing them to domes, and the ecosystem idea stopped being so enjoyable as at the start.

Side view

Plan view

I was thinking of doing just one dome in the middle of the bridge. But as I looked at the image, it reminded me of another bridge. It was the Cirkelbroen Bridge in Copenhagen. And again I had the feeling that the design is very easy but it has something that saves it in your mind, something unusual.

Sebastian Behmann was an architectural designer for this project. He liked working with forms, transparency and play with light. But in this project, he worked mostly with the shape and mobility of the bridge. It has somehow remembered a sailing boat, and this look represents a movable possibility of it.

Bridge Cirkelbroen

Now, after I looked at bridges with new and interesting shapes, I'm thinking of cutting away the idea of an ecosystem stem and focusing more on organic forms that will represent an Earthly Delight. I want to try not to combine different styles; I want to create a smooth but minimalistic look. Also, I still want to save the spheres, but I want to try sketching them as prototypes of a bridge for the Musi River. However, I want to cut them in the middle and place them on the side so that in the plan view, it will look similar to this design. Furthermore, I want to create something more rounded like the Cirkelbroen bridge. I think this improvement will make the bridge weight less however, the design will look more original.

Reference:

“Cirkelbroen Bridge / Studio Olafur Eliasson.” ArchDaily, 24 Aug. 2015, www.archdaily.com/772411/cirkelbroen-bridge-studio-olafur-eliasson. Accessed 19 Feb. 2025.

Ahmad, Rafay. “Musi River Bridge Design Competition - Green Arch World.” Green Arch World, 16 May 2022, greenarchworld.com/architecture-design/musi-river-bridge-design-competition/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2025.

“About Us.” Studiootherspaces.net, 2023, studiootherspaces.net/about-us.html. Accessed 19 Feb. 2025.

Britannica. “Bridge - Truss.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/technology/bridge-engineering/Truss. Accessed 19 Feb. 2025.