"Strong focus on aesthetics" contributed to collapse of Norway timber bridge
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Re: "Strong focus on aesthetics" contributed to collapse of Norway timber bridge
#2Truly a generational parable for our times.
Re: "Strong focus on aesthetics" contributed to collapse of Norway timber bridge
#3Architects’ first commandment: always prioritize function over form.
Re: "Strong focus on aesthetics" contributed to collapse of Norway timber bridge
#4Architects’ first commandment: always prioritize function over form.
Function over form is a false equivalency, a modernist fetish.
Architect's first commandment should be to strive to a perfect integration of beauty, usefulness and durability. There are many real world examples, so it's not a trade-off.
Plus, that "strong focus on aesthetics" seem to be a throwaway comment in the report, and it is disputed by the design studio who built the bridge.
Re: "Strong focus on aesthetics" contributed to collapse of Norway timber bridge
#5Sounds miserably similar to this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_International_Universi...
Though the FIU one collapsed within a week of the fatally flawed span first being installed.
Re: "Strong focus on aesthetics" contributed to collapse of Norway timber bridge
#6The actual report with animated video and english subtitles:
https://www.nsia.no/Road/Published-reports/2024-03
I translated some of the norweigan paragraps that include "estetik" but I can't figure out if they mean "they should have used steel" or they mean "the diagonal members should change direction to keep them in compression" or both.
Re: "Strong focus on aesthetics" contributed to collapse of Norway timber bridge
#7> "A short construction period, span lengths and reuse of existing foundation were framework conditions for the planning of the bridge," it continued.
> "These framework conditions, combined with the choice of material and a strong focus on aesthetics, contributed to the structure not being robust."
Given that it doesn't look that remarkable it seems odd that a little asymmetry couldn't be accounted for. Or was someone out there saying "we'll never build symmetric bridges, our river is too good for them..." Because the rest of the article makes it sound more like an engineering failure.
Re: "Strong focus on aesthetics" contributed to collapse of Norway timber bridge
#8Sounds miserably similar to this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_International_Universi... Though the FIU one collapsed within a week of the fatally flawed span first being installed .
That was due to a design calculation error, not some aesthetic concern.
Re: "Strong focus on aesthetics" contributed to collapse of Norway timber bridge
#9Architects’ first commandment: always prioritize function over form.
Nah. Have you seen the Sydney Opera House?
Re: "Strong focus on aesthetics" contributed to collapse of Norway timber bridge
#10The key line IMO:
Tretten Bridge was designed while building regulations in Norway were in transition from a national system to European codes.
Provisions for this transitional period enabled the project to follow the older national standards, which unlike the Eurocodes did not account for block shear failure.