architecture landscape sculpture
web_olympic rose 01.jpg

olympic bridge

Olympic_Bridge_Tonkin_Liu_London_Render

olympic bridge
lifted up into the air after the olympic games,
revealing the green lea river basin below,
the giant disc with colour glass is a symbol of the global community,
and a gathering place for the local community

 
 
Olympic_Bridge_Tonkin_Liu_London_Render_2
Olympic_Bridge_Tonkin_Liu_London_model_2
 

A bridge takes you from one place to another, and has an above and a below. Typically, the above is light, and the below, dark. Stories unfold. What is below the bridge? Over the Carpenter’s Lock sits a disc made of rolled steel plates and coloured glass lenses. It is a temporary bridge for the London Olympics. The experience of crossing the bridge is heightened by the passage of light, colour, rain and people.

 
 
 
Olympic_Bridge_Tonkin_Liu_London_model
 
Olympic_Bridge_Tonkin_Liu_London_model
 
 

The disc is lifted up into the air in the post-Olympics Legacy Park, to reveal the historic lock below. Inside the green basin people bask in the luminous dappled light of the Olympic colours. The bridge becomes a sign and a gathering place for the local community, retaining the memory of the global community that crossed over it during the 2012 Olympic Games.

 
Olympic_Bridge_Tonkin_Liu_London_drawing
 
Olympic_Bridge_Tonkin_Liu_London_detail
 

client olympic delivery authority
location london, uk
status 2007
structural engineer atelier one
sustainability bdp sustainability
landscape grant associates
budget £7 million
span 78 m