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Living Bridges
Living Bridges
Toronto, Canada
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Living Bridges
Toronto, Canada
Firm
STATUS
Concept
SIZE
25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft
BUDGET
$10M - 50M
Living Bridges: Urban Infrastructure as a Multi-use Economic Asset
Imagine your city’s most costly infrastructure as high performing social and cultural urban revenue generators. What if spending on pipes, pavement, single-use bridges and transit was directed toward the challenges of affordable housing and community-building?
Worldwide, urban areas with a high quality of life face urgent demands to offset the alarming side-effects that threaten their continued success. These cities are rapidly become unaffordable to people who are essential to the future of thriving, resilient communities. The need to increase density, inclusiveness, affordability and access requires a bold new approach to land use, healthy design and breakthrough construction methods.
As governments globally invest in the repair and upgrade of infrastructure, new possibilities are emerging. Infrastructure has traditionally been viewed as an ongoing maintenance expense which is chronically underfunded. As a result, for example, bridges are in a perpetual state of disrepair. What if bridges were designed as long term, multi-use, high performing, revenue producing assets rather than single function, costly liabilities?
The idea of building multi-use, multi-functional buildings and neighbourhoods has always been a core ingredient to creating highly successful cities. Equally, the idea of building multi-use, multi-functional infrastructure in the core of highly successful cities was invented long before car-centric planning norms dominated our thinking about urban bridges. In the Italian cities of Venice and Florence the question that sparked an enormously successful and attractive solution was, “Where can we build a mix of housing, cafes and shops in the middle of our densely developed city (given that real estate is scarce and expensive) while generating ongoing revenues for infrastructure maintenance?”
Their answer resulted in what is today one of the top tourist attractions, housing among the most successful retail shops in each city. The Rialto Bridge in Venice and the Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence combine infrastructure with human-scale, walkable mixed-use urban assets. Beginning in the 15th century, shops were built along the sides of the Rialto Bridge so as to generate rental income for the State Treasury, as a way to generate revenues to helped maintain the bridge.
Could we similarly build on the structurally over-designed foundations of our old bridges? Could these passive structures be animated with new life and activities, including new technology-enabled lightweight housing and services? Could we literally bridge our weak urban links between neighbourhoods to forge stronger community connections?
We are living in one of the most exiting time to be alive in human history, abundant with innovations at a break-neck speed effecting all facets of our lives around us. However, we are still thinking of infrastructure, and constructing buildings, the same way we did in the 1900s and solving our urban needs the same way as we did in that period. The future of accessible, affordable housing and multi-use infrastructure will be built with lighter, more flexible, less expensive and more resource efficient construction materials and methods. A game-changing bonding and building system, Grip Metal, originally perfected within the auto industry, driven by lighter-less cost-better performance mindsets, has now opening new possibilities for abundance and massive innovation by enhancing quality of life while reducing costs.
By marrying this new transformation in building technology mindset, with a need for affordable, vibrant housing with existing infrastructure of our old bridges, we have the ability to transform these passive structures to be animated with new life and activities, including new technology-enabled lightweight housing and services. We have the ability to literally bridge our weak urban links between neighbourhoods to forge stronger community connections in the middle of urban centres.
At a time when governments are wrestling with big decisions about infrastructure spending, economic stimulation and promoting a more inclusive society with healthy housing options, we can’t use the same thinking or we will get the same tired outcomes. We can and must take advantage of new approaches that build on our past foundations to create cities that are affordable to people who are essential to the future of thriving, resilient communities, cities that are density, inclusiveness, affordability and importantly, that thrive.
Imagine your city’s most costly infrastructure as high performing social and cultural urban revenue generators. What if spending on pipes, pavement, single-use bridges and transit was directed toward the challenges of affordable housing and community-building?
Worldwide, urban areas with a high quality of life face urgent demands to offset the alarming side-effects that threaten their continued success. These cities are rapidly become unaffordable to people who are essential to the future of thriving, resilient communities. The need to increase density, inclusiveness, affordability and access requires a bold new approach to land use, healthy design and breakthrough construction methods.
As governments globally invest in the repair and upgrade of infrastructure, new possibilities are emerging. Infrastructure has traditionally been viewed as an ongoing maintenance expense which is chronically underfunded. As a result, for example, bridges are in a perpetual state of disrepair. What if bridges were designed as long term, multi-use, high performing, revenue producing assets rather than single function, costly liabilities?
The idea of building multi-use, multi-functional buildings and neighbourhoods has always been a core ingredient to creating highly successful cities. Equally, the idea of building multi-use, multi-functional infrastructure in the core of highly successful cities was invented long before car-centric planning norms dominated our thinking about urban bridges. In the Italian cities of Venice and Florence the question that sparked an enormously successful and attractive solution was, “Where can we build a mix of housing, cafes and shops in the middle of our densely developed city (given that real estate is scarce and expensive) while generating ongoing revenues for infrastructure maintenance?”
Their answer resulted in what is today one of the top tourist attractions, housing among the most successful retail shops in each city. The Rialto Bridge in Venice and the Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence combine infrastructure with human-scale, walkable mixed-use urban assets. Beginning in the 15th century, shops were built along the sides of the Rialto Bridge so as to generate rental income for the State Treasury, as a way to generate revenues to helped maintain the bridge.
Could we similarly build on the structurally over-designed foundations of our old bridges? Could these passive structures be animated with new life and activities, including new technology-enabled lightweight housing and services? Could we literally bridge our weak urban links between neighbourhoods to forge stronger community connections?
We are living in one of the most exiting time to be alive in human history, abundant with innovations at a break-neck speed effecting all facets of our lives around us. However, we are still thinking of infrastructure, and constructing buildings, the same way we did in the 1900s and solving our urban needs the same way as we did in that period. The future of accessible, affordable housing and multi-use infrastructure will be built with lighter, more flexible, less expensive and more resource efficient construction materials and methods. A game-changing bonding and building system, Grip Metal, originally perfected within the auto industry, driven by lighter-less cost-better performance mindsets, has now opening new possibilities for abundance and massive innovation by enhancing quality of life while reducing costs.
By marrying this new transformation in building technology mindset, with a need for affordable, vibrant housing with existing infrastructure of our old bridges, we have the ability to transform these passive structures to be animated with new life and activities, including new technology-enabled lightweight housing and services. We have the ability to literally bridge our weak urban links between neighbourhoods to forge stronger community connections in the middle of urban centres.
At a time when governments are wrestling with big decisions about infrastructure spending, economic stimulation and promoting a more inclusive society with healthy housing options, we can’t use the same thinking or we will get the same tired outcomes. We can and must take advantage of new approaches that build on our past foundations to create cities that are affordable to people who are essential to the future of thriving, resilient communities, cities that are density, inclusiveness, affordability and importantly, that thrive.
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