Architects

Thomas Heatherwick

Thomas Heatherwick is a famous English Designer. He was born on February 17^th In 1970, He is 41 soon to be 42. He was born in London. He works In Heatherwick studio which was found in 1994. That's where he designed 'The Rolling Bridge'. Other key works of this architect are designs such as: The Seed Cathedral, also he designed the new bus for London, as well as the East Beach Café which is the building created in West Sussex, UK. Also he designed the sculpture in Manchester called B of the Bang. He Had an Exhibition in 2004 where he presented 1,000 everyday design objects that he has gathered.

Heatherwick designed a bridge called 'The Rolling Bridge' so I’m going to talk more about that. The bridge was made to carry pedestrians and was finished and constructed in 2005. It was Designed in Thomas Heatherwick studio and is a total of 39ft which is equivalent to 12 metres. It was a movable bridge and consists of 8 triangular sections joined to the walkway. It is made of steel segments, hydraulic actuators and lightweight deck. It allows the boats to pass safely as it curls up to an octagonal shape and once the boats have floated through the bridge extends and lets the passengers walk through. The bridge had some maintenance issues at around 2008, it had to be fixed and was fully operating again in April 2009. This bridge is known to be the only 'curling' bridge that exists.

My opinion on this bridge is just 'Wow'. Firstly because I never would have suspected or even though that this kind of bridge exists and yet it was already designed and constructed by this architect. I would love to see it sometime as it is in the London, UK. I think the idea of the bridge is really unique and one of a kind. I read that in Victoria era there was similar moving bridges, but none of them looked like this one.