Project name: Erasmus Bridge
Place: Rotterdam
Architects: Ben van Berkel, Freek Loos, UN Studio
Client: Department of Public Works Development Company
Partners: Engineering Departments Rotterdam IBS, IH and IWG, ENECO, Lighting Design Partnership Edinburgh
Builders: Heerema Dock Installations, Grootint, Compagnie d'Enterprises CFE, Maatschappij voor Bouw-en Grondwerken, Ravestein-Noell
Project date: 1989
Construction start date: 1994
Completion date: 1996
Structure size: total length: 802 metres; height: 139 metres; weight: 6800 tons.
This unusual project is an example of renewal, not only of aesthetic and construction parameters but of ideological and social principles, which took the project out of the purely technical sphere into an area of experimentation with new architectural models.Erasmus Bridge is the fruit of an approach to design based on integration of different components, whose relationships with one another give life to an organic whole. To obtain this result the Dutch architect kept on fine-tuning the project until he had come up with a true masterpiece of civil engineering.
The structure with its unrivalled fascination permits people to move quickly from one end of the city to the other while offering beautiful views over the city from a variety of angles.
Floriana De Rosa
