SKYWALK is a 140 meter long covered urban bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists. It takes the people coming from the metro-station “Spittelau” and carries them over the most-complicated traffic knot of Vienna to a small residential park.
This project is the winning entry in a European architectural competition. To solve the assigned task and build one more bridge in a place, where several streets and tramway lines are passing on different levels, four other bridges and two branches of the historic Otto Wagner railway are woven into one another, seemed almost impossible. Architects decision was to subordinate the design of the new bridge to all this complex prerequisites, to make an object which could harmoniously coexist with the components of the complex environment with buildings from different époques -historic and modern.

Skywalk becomes an example of some kind of “parametric” design. Each of its elements has parameters, which are influenced and determined by the environment. The bridge changes often its wide, height and direction in accordance with the other urban components and seems like a living thing, which squeezes through the dense urban meshwork.

- The streets which this new bridge passes over are crossing other bridges at different levels which require that SKYWALK often changes its height to ensure the minimal demanded traffic heights.
- Additionally its way pierces one of the pillars of the historic Otto Wagner Railway. At that point its width was reduced. The width of the bridge narrows at the tunnel and widens at the park exit.
- The main structural uninterrupted steel girder changes its height according to the variable force moments.
- The walking level corresponds to the level of the underlying streets and bridges. The floor level is shaped by ramps, enabling the handicapped and the bicyclers.
- The glazed understructure is based on an economically-efficient, steady and monotonous grid.
- The only element requiring a special design, unlimited from the situation, was the roof. But the architect’s decision was a simple, straight horizontal element, unifying the whole bridge and bringing quietness in this complex environment. This produced various heights in the interior space, which creates the discreet diversity of the interior.
- The glass surface of the walls and roof has a white lined raster as protection of the birds, which are flying against it. This raster complements the picture of the shadows in the interior.

The light coming trough the glazed walls and the roof, the rhythmical and constantly changing shadow patterns enliven the bridge architecture and display the permanent interactivity between the passers-by and the environment.

During the night the illuminated bridge radiates light through its glazed shape and forms a connecting link for the whole heterogeneous urban environment.

AWARDS for this project:
European General Planning Competition 2004, first prize
European Prize for Urban Public Space 2008, Finalist
Otto- Wagner Urbanistic Award 2007, special mention
Walk- Space Award in Gold, first prize 2009