Accademia Bridge
International design competition
The Accademia Bridge is one of only four bridges to span the Grand Canal in Venice.
The new design for the bridge – intended to replace the provisional wooden construction – is a light-weight, membrane construction forming a transparent ‘roof cloud’ over a free-plan geometry. Interior and exterior spaces are blending together into a spatial and functional continuity.
The bridge and the connecting museum (Gallerie dell’Accademia) interact within the cloud.
The structure creates a dynamic image that allows for constant changes in season and time. The bridge becomes an intangible object that hovers above the Grand Canal. The form changes from a translucent object during the day to a lantern object at night.
The structural system is optimized as an irregular spatial structure of intersecting steel tubes. These generate a cocoon-like spatial framework in the form of a ‘roof cloud‘.