Maribor Shadow Bridge

Description

SHADOW BRIDGE
The proposed pedestrian bridge would hold a special position in the sequence of bridges in Maribor:

- It would be accessible for pedestrians and cyclists.
- It would be associated with the river.
- It would form a pair with the Glavni Most main bridge – serve as its twin, so to speak – and be in direct changeable and spatial interaction with Glavni Most.
- It would move, turn and shift like the shadow of Glavni Most.

MOVEMENT + SPEED
The proposed pedestrian bridge, the Shadow Bridge, would move as a shadow moves. The characteristic movement would be infinitely slow and hardly perceptible as individual movement. Two fundamental speeds have been proposed:

- In a gradual, continuous movement, the Shadow Bridge will cover a distance of about 100 meters per week, which could be the approximate general speed of operation. The bridge can also be stopped and kept in certain positions for a period of time.

- The bridge may also be “shunted” (like a train) if desired, i.e. be moved “quickly” from one point to another. For shunting the bridge, higher speeds can be applied, such as 10 meters per minute, so that it would move 100 meters in 10 minutes. Such speeds would only be applied in individual cases and under supervision.

THE NEW BRIDGE AS AN OPTICAL DEVICE
A bridge serves to clearly align the gaze of passers-by. Fundamentally, a bridge is a sighting device similar to a weapon’s notch and bead sights. A bridge has the qualities of a telescope and is thus also an instrument to direct and focus the gaze. These qualities make bridges essential tools in urban design, in addition to their role as infrastructure.
What is interesting in this case is that a bridge that can be moved, shifted and aligned like a telescope can be continuously put in a new position in relation to the city, generating a permanently changing reading of the city.
The new bridge roams the city with infinite slowness like a telescope panning over it.

THE NEW BRIDGE AS AN INFRASTRUCTURE TOOL
A movable bridge is an exceedingly interesting tool for infrastructure. Today, it may link Dravska Ulica street to the new Faculty of Medicine; a week later, the bridge may be further to the west, near the new museum. This allows us to avoid a fixed focus. We can assign significance to different spaces along the river at different times. The bridge becomes a movable path.

THE NEW BRIDGE AS A CALENDAR TOOL
The movement and alignment of the bridge can follow elaborate choreographies. The bridge can become a sort of calendar structure by cycling through certain positions:
- It can direct the gaze to a certain building in the city on a certain day of the week (e.g. the church tower on Sunday).
- Its general position can follow the change of the seasons, e.g. with a winter position and a summer position.
- The position and alignment of the bridge can reflect the situation or mood of the city, the weather or the inhabitants. As a movable element, the bridge can be used like a simple communication system.

THE NEW BRIDGE AS A MEMORY TOOL
The bridge’s movement is slow, like a moored boat or raft drifting back and forth. In the course of our work on the project, we noticed that the new bridge, the Shadow Bridge, moves back and forth like an oversized moored boat, floating away on a fictional current and brought back by the resistance of the mooring. It creates an image reminiscent of the rafts moored along the banks of the river Lent.