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Brilliant Design for an Unobtrusive Bridge

By Rain Noe - November 15, 2011

in Architecture | Sustainable Design

This is so cool: Tasked with adjoining a 17th-Century Dutch island fortress to a nearby piece of land, Netherlands-based architecture firm RO&AD devised an unobtrusive structure that's being cheekily called the Moses Bridge.

Constructed of engineered wood produced by Accoya, which uses nontoxic treatments in their processes, the watertight bridge is Cradle to Cradle Gold Certified.

I believe the design would not be practicable for a flowing river, even if it didn't go all the way to the bottom, as there would likely be some kind of damming effect with ecosystemic consequences. But it's a perfect idea for a moat like the one surrounded the fort. And I'm digging that infinity-pool aesthetic.

via inhabitat

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Captain Obvious

13 years ago

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@ Shaun

I believe that the subtlety of the humour in Tony's post may have been wasted on you, good sir. He quite clearly understands the situation in the Netherlands (specifically the flat nation's 1000+ year history of flood defence) and was having a kind-hearted dig at the original post.

+1 for the aesthetic execution and originality.

The water in the moat may very easily be from a close-by river and 'flood control' could be achieved very simply by discharging a little of the volume back into the river and isolating the moat once this is done. I am quite certain that there would not be an oversight on this part :)
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Shaun

13 years ago

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@Tony Seeing as how they are neighbors with Denmark, it's completely moronic to think that they've never thought of flood control.
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Rob Roy

13 years ago

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@Tony hahaha

Beautiful idea and execution.
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Tony Carton

13 years ago

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I would bet that these people from the Netherlands have never even put a thought to flood control. Boy would their faces be red if their entire nation was ever in constant peril of being flooded by the North Sea.
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Michael Wendell

13 years ago

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While it's certainly beautiful, it's impractical as hell.

Even an isolated body of water such as this varies in depth over the seasons due to rain and evaporation, this 'bridge' will eventually flood, requiring pumps and a lot of scrubbing. Also, I'm pretty sure that Holland gets winter. I would think that thing would crumble like matchsticks if the water around it froze.

All that being said, is it possible that this is a temporary installation? If not, I'd love to know how they plan to handle the issues mentioned above.
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