How does this 42-meter timber bridge in Ravensburg create a low-impact transit space that integrates into the slope and reflects the forest ecosystem?

Design Concept

The core concept is based on the image of renewal: "A fallen tree as a habitat for new life." This image of constantly renewable processes in the ecosystem explains the new bridge construction, where the old becomes new, and new structures and connections are created.

• Aesthetics: The design uses a combination of intervention and natural design. The paths and connections naturally nestle into the topos of the slope, respecting the backdrop of the protective forest.
• Spatial Quality: A new open space is created at the correspondence between settlement and landscape, depicted as a clearing in the forest on one side and a plunge into the thicket of trees on the other.

Site plan

Elevation

Structure and Engineering

The 42-meter-long bridge is fully conceived in Timber, utilizing this material canon to integrate with the natural surroundings.

• Materiality: The wood design creates a distinctive and unexpected space for movement.
• Robustness: The construction is deliberately designed for robustness so that the planned use cannot harm the structure.
• Aesthetics: The gesture and material canon of the balustrades are reflected in the seating areas at the ends of the bridge, giving the site a unified design identity.

Plan underside

Sections_Elevation

Sustainability (Regeneration/Resilience)

The design is characterized by humility and respect for nature and aims for minimally invasive interventions in free vegetative structures.

• Ecological Balance: The project works with the principles of renewal and the constantly renewable processes within the ecosystem.
• Biodiversity: The declared goal is minimal-invasive interventions in free space vegetation structures to protect the habitat of birds (avifauna) and other animals.
• Conservation: The principle is: "What is removed is replaced, what exists is protected."

Construction sequence

Urban Integration and Spatial Experience

The bridge serves as both a transit space and a place to stay, redefining the interface between human settlement and forest landscape.

• Social Benefit: The bridge is a transit space but also a place to pause and exchange ideas (seating elements function as "large chaise lounges in the living room of urban nature").
• Mobility: The new route is intended equally for pedestrians and cyclists and creates valuable connections to neighboring settlements.
• Co-existence: The structure considers the flight paths of avifauna and the roads of the anthropogenically shaped valley, prioritizing the idea that "Only togetherness counts" and leaves the necessary space for all.