“We are told never to cross a bridge until we come to it, but this world is owned by men who have 'crossed bridges' in their imagination far ahead of the crowd.”

Julian Hakes lives opposite me and is a friend but also an amazing architect striking out with his own company Hakes Associates, through his studio window I see him working away into the late hours and the following morning you might see a new model appear, a new concept drawing or even himself bounding around telling you of his great ideas. What he has is a unique talent for bridges, listening to him go into detail about the ideas behind them and the journey he takes in developing the designs is inspirational. What I thought were small perimeters to design within are in fact one of the reasons why the structures Julian comes up with are so enthralling. I never really thought that much about what makes a bridge successful until the Millennium Bridge was opened in London and it wobbled so much on opening day that people fell over. After seeing this I realised that the design and engineering of a bridge is an incredibly complex thing and great minds have to come together to realise a concept from start to completion.

I have crossed certain bridges just so I could walk along the amazing structure, to test how it feels to be on the bridge, maybe under tension cables or maybe just on a structure which you're left wondering how it holds together. Julian has a bridge in production called the Mobius Bridge and it is a amazing feat of design and engineering with the bridge being 'independent of either river bank' it is astounding to see and one of those bridges you would like to experience and not just to get to the other side but for the pleasure of seeing it up close and in detail, to see how it is constructed and the visual journey it takes you along. From this concept Julian has now expanded the design into a shoe, his mind know no limits and a true creative inside out.

Today I was emailed a link showing a series of unusual and creative bridges and I thought I would post one or two here to show you their unusual forms and to help explain how bridge design is being pushed forward. Bridges have always had interesting forms through basic needs of structure but now we are revisiting these forms & function and challenging what we have always perceived the shape of a bridge to be, this new generation of bridges are a welcomed change to our built horizon.