Bridge Design 2024

This year we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the popular Mastercourse in Bridge Design at 荷兰代尔夫特理工大学 . As always, it was a privilege to teach the art of bridge design to a talented group of master's students from architecture, building technology, and civil engineering disciplines. A special thanks to Martin Knight and Laurent Ney for delivering two very inspiring masterclasses! Additionally, heartfelt gratitude to Stijn Joosten from Ney & Partners for his invaluable structural coaching, and to Mark Ernst from Gemeente Rotterdam for providing five exceptional sites for the students to design bridges. Most importantly, a huge thank you to all my students who have worked diligently and shown remarkable growth over the course of 10 weeks. Excellent job!

Joris

Highlights from the final presentations:

Rhona de Lange, Tjeerd Prins & Bas Jonker performed a double leap, one across the harbor and another across the decks, creating two elegant arches with a radiant cable arrangement.

Mattia de Lotto , Gaspard Marteau & Tamara Lalyko designed an ingenious circular structure using recycled sheet piles, featuring a swing bridge in the center.

Sam Haverhals , Matteo Lucanto & Steef Suijs created a low-profile, yet harmonious integrated design of bike slopes and stairways, combined with a swing bridge.

Jet Wiersma , Lynn Klootwijk & Viktor Bogomolskii reused some of the old harbor crane structures for the supports of their bridge, making it a circular design and a nod to the historical industrial harbor.

Benedetta Rizzo , June Choi & Hyosik Kim reinvented themselves many times, culminating in an elegant inverted Fink truss with an integrated swing component.

Justin Tjon Kie Sim , Jesper Van Der Ploeg & Daan Franken designed an unobtrusive yet ingenious structure featuring beautifully detailed eccentric tripod pillars.

Guus Meinema , Kushav Dharvish Aubeeluck & Bruno Xavier designed a classical series of under-arches within an intricate 3D web of voids and slopes to reach all levels of the waterfront.

Benjamin Beurs & Erwin Huisman designed a double-leaf bascule bridge with outboard counterweights and a striking silhouette.