The Weave Bridge is a bridge at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, USA, which was conceptualized by

Cecil Balmond Cecil Balmond OBE is a British Sri Lankan designer, artist, and writer. In 1968, Balmond joined Ove Arup & Partners, leading him to become deputy chairman. In 2000, he founded design and research group, the AGU (Advanced Geometry Unit). He curre ...

and engineered by

Ammann & Whitney Ammann & Whitney was a full-service Civil engineering firm that provided design and construction services for public and private sector projects. The firm provided new construction, renovations, adaptive reuse, historic preservation, interior desi ...

. It was commissioned by the university in 2007, and opened in June 2009.Weave Bridge - Engineering
Architect Magazine. Retrieved on 2010-09-09. The bridge creates a pedestrian passage over the

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

train tracks that currently separate the main campus from athletic fields along the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...

. The design features a "braided rope" structure consisting of stainless steel strands. It marks the first milestone in the university's plan to transform a former postal depot into a complex, called Penn Park. The design uses a "never before used bridge structure" 'Weave': Cecil Balmond's bridge in two pieces
Wired.co.uk. Retrieved on 2010-09-09. It is in keeping with Balmond's perusal of a "non-linear world, and his principle that "structure as conceptual rigour is architecture." His dynamic and organizational approach to structure is informed by the sciences of

complexity Complexity characterizes the behavior of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to non-linearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence. The term is generally used to c ...

, non-linear organization and

emergence In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when a complex entity has properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on their own, and emerge only when they interact in a wider whole. Emergence plays a central rol ...

. The design obviates the use of conventional longitudinal supporting beams. According to ''Esquire'' magazine:"The span is a poetic solution to a pedestrian problem." Balmond founded and runs the University of Pennsylvania's Non-Linear Systems Organization, a research group he set up to explore ways in which

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

can demonstrate, test and apply insights from

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

s. He currently holds the Paul Philippe Cret chair as Professor of Architecture at

PennDesign The University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design is the design school of the University of Pennsylvania, a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It offers degrees in architecture, landscape architecture, ...

. Cecil Balmond realized the design through Arup's AGU, an experimental research and design unit he founded in 2000. Balmond joined Arup in 1968 and is Deputy Chairman.

References

External links

METROPOLISFRAME MagazinedomusWallpaperWallpaper

ABITARENBSARUP
{{coord, 39.94864, -75.18702, region:US-PA_type:landmark, display=title University of Pennsylvania Bridges in Philadelphia Bridges over the Schuylkill River Pedestrian bridges in Pennsylvania Steel bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 2009 2009 establishments in Pennsylvania