Oscar Bridge

The project is built near a city Břeclav in Czech Republic.  This area is known for its beautiful nature protected by many programs, e.g. UNESCO Biosphere Reservation or NATURA 2000. When designing the railway bridge over the River Dyje, the main idea was to create a sophisticated line that becomes a part of the landscape. Organic playful line that curves and connects surrounding nature with highly technical elements of a construction.

The construction itself is of the bridge is network tied arch. Design of the main load-bearing arch comes out of a need to bridge a required span between two banks of the river. There is a hanged deck on the arch. The main arch construction is accompanied by lightening arch between main arch ribs to help bear the load of moving trains. Top bracing is more robust then hangers and it takes form of a latticework uniting arch ribs.

Abutments of the bridge are laid in the riverbed. The shaping of them is elementary and tries to connect the bridge to surrounding landscape. Abutments is designed in elegant lines to support the curve of the main bridge arch. By choosing an exposed concrete to build the bridge supports from, architect tried to prevent graffiti and support extension of greenery and moss.

Even more significant visual aspect than technical design is chosen colour palette of the construction. The main colour is a white visible on arch ribs and the bridge deck. This colour represents purity, elegance and it serves as a great base for anthracite black and yellow accents.  Namely yellow top bracing and hangers and black bottom part of the deck. The whole idea of the bridge, meaning design, technologies and colours used, provides dynamically changing views when the sun comes up and sets.

The name Oskar also resonates throughout the visual of the bridge. In Czech dialect Oskar means the sun and so the colour yellow fits to hangers and the top bracing perfectly.

These large engineering constructions in general are impossible to gracefully hide in the landscape. But when done sensitively and with the genius loci of the surroundings taken into account, a peaceful symbiosis between a construction and a landscape can be achieved. Both a construction and a landscape can support each other, mirror each other and prosper.