First look at designs for elegant river crossing that could link Nine Elms with Pimlico

 
Designs: dozens of ideas have been put forward for the new bridge
Miranda Bryant24 February 2015

A huge sweeping ark that goes from one side of the river to the other and a tropical palm tree-lined walkway are among dozens of designs unveiled today for a proposed new bridge across the Thames.

More than 70 teams from around the world entered a design competition to put forward their ideas for a crossing between Nine Elms and Pimlico that could potentially rival the Garden Bridge.

Wandsworth Council invited teams to come up with a bridge that is both attractive and accommodates pedestrians and cyclists.

Council bosses claim that a bridge is needed to fill the gap between Vauxhall and Chelsea bridges.

Along the river, it is hoped that award-winning architect Thomas Heatherwick’s £175m Garden Bridge - a “floating garden” connecting Temple and South Bank - will open in 2018.

The first stage design ideas for the Nine Elms-Pimlico bridge, which are currently anonymous to allow new talent to compete fairly against established practices.

Each design proposal is undergoing technical assessment until next month when a panel - which includes Wandsworth and Lambeth councillors, an architect and an engineer - will recommend a shortlist of up to four teams to go through to the next stage to develop the plans.

The winning design would then need to get through the planning process before work can begin.

A £26million contribution to the bridge has been identified from the development of Nine Elms as part of an infrastructure package for the area.

Leader of Wandsworth Council and jury panel member, Councillor Ravi Govindia, said: “We challenged the world’s designers to come up with creative solutions to a very complex set of design, engineering and transport challenges. The response is testament to the exceptional talent out there. We have now begun to analyse each proposal in detail and I encourage Londoners to explore these ideas for themselves and to tell us what they think.

“To succeed this bridge must be two things at once. It must be a beautiful piece of architecture and a valuable new transport link. This is what our growing city needs and thanks to this competition we now have more than 70 different approaches to consider.”

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