Foreword

The Nature Conservation Agency of Latvia paired up with Bee Breeders to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Gauja National Park - the country's largest national park at 90,000 hectares - by challenging architects and designers with submitting proposals for a footbridge marking the park's entry. The footbridge is intended to serve as an architectural landmark that adds to the park's existing collection of 500 cultural and historical monuments, including medieval castles and towns.

The competition called for a footbridge which can span an existing roadway, at an elevation high enough to allow cars and trucks to pass below. The submissions responded with an extensive array of design concepts. Several sought means of introducing verticality into the design to offer viewing platforms. Others focused on drawing from natural forms or elements, such as leaves, trees, and hills. A broad range of material and structural concepts were tested, including cable-supported decks, simple horizontal slabs, and systems supported by trusses.

The jury members sought solutions with structural integrity, those that could offer pedestrians unique opportunities for viewing, as well as those with the potential to become a symbolic new entry and exit point for visitors traveling through the park by vehicle. Sustainable and minimally invasive proposals were looked highly upon. When designing a pedestrian bridge, architects often focus on complex formal solutions to solve the rather simple problem of spanning a gap to connect point A with point B. The jury felt strongly that the most successful forms were those that also offered experiential new ways of discovering the park.

Bee Breeders thanks all designers that took part in this design ideas competition. The quality of the imagery and structural concepts was high. And many of the proposals submitted have the capacity to offer Gauja Park the new architectural landmark it deserves.

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Gauja 
National Park
Footbridge
Official partner
Gauja 
National Park
Footbridge

1st Prize Winner

Project name

Flow: Between City and River

As a test and as a means to train instincts and refine intuition.

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Authors Abraham Fung,
Country Australia

2nd Prize Winner

Project name

Gauja National Park Footbridge

Authors Paul Kaloustian,
Country Lebanon

3rd Prize Winner

Project name

THE BARK BRIDGE

Country Italy

BB GREEN AWARD +
BB STUDENT AWARD

Project name

Gauja Park Gateway

Authors Inness Yeoman,
Country United Kingdom
+122 points Buildner University Rankings

Honorable Mentions

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Project name

Transience

Project name

The Gauja OverView

Authors Bryce Suite, Ruta Daubure,
Country United Kingdom
Project name

Gauja National Park Footbridge

Authors Giorgi Maisuradze, ,
Country Italy
Project name

A Branch Between the Thicket

Authors Zhong Cai,
Country Canada
Project name

Wooden way bridge

Authors Maria Bugrova, Sergei Beliaev, Anastasiia Grek, Ivan Polyakov
Country Russian Federation
Project name

Embrace

Authors Wang Fan,
Country China

Shortlisted projects

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Gauja National Park Footbridge

Mohammad reza Khakpour

Greece

Kyle Hohmann

Phillip Hammond

Jill Amezcua

Halff Associates

United States

Gauja National Park Footbridge

Edgars Janemanis

Andris Kažociņš

Latvia

Hide and Reveal

Michelle Lazar

Matthew Sweig

Emily McKenna

Tupac Espinoza

Forest and Field Landscape Architecture

Canada

The Flowing Bridge

Philip Schneider

Technical University of Munich

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Germany

Plakans Bridge

Alex Warr

Noah Winkler

United States

A Branch Between the Thicket

Zhong Cai

Canada

Gauja National Park Footbridge

Giorgi Maisuradze

Italy

Archventure Bridge

David Katz

Julia MacKenzie

Radia Berrada

Shana Kim

Katz Architecture

United States

The Gauja OverView

Bryce Suite

Ruta Daubure

United Kingdom

EMPTY TRUNK

Mauro Fontana

Francesca Guaini

Italy

Forest Flux

Rikus Engelbrecht

Dirk Lourens

Celeste Havenga

ATLJEE_101

South Africa

An Extension of the Forest

Kira Bennett

United Kingdom

"Symbol-ic"

Vegard Elseth

Karlis Kukainis

Mackintosh School of Architecture/Glasgow School of Art

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United Kingdom

Woodland BRIDGE/PATH/CABIN

Joe Sampey

Megan Devlin

Mackintosh School of Architecture/Glasgow School of Art

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United Kingdom

Passage.

Callum Smith

William White-howe

Mackintosh School of Architecture/Glasgow School of Art

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United Kingdom

Butterfly Timber Bridge

Kaikang Shen

Yuchi Wang

Yijia Wang

Yaran Zhang

United States

Natures waves

Andis Blums

Latvia

Yarn Bifröst

Maiko Takiguchi

Takashi Fukushima

Hajime Aoyagi

Ryuju Hanaoka

NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD

Japan

Scaling in the Woods

Dario Schoulund

Rudolph Botha

South Africa

Motion in the Woods

Shohei Yamada

Shotaro Shirai

Peter Boda

Tatsuhiko Yoshiki

Japan

Flow: Between City and River

Abraham Fung

Australia

DaVinci Bridge

Jan Storm

Czech Republic

TAXONOMY OF BRIDGES FOR GAUJA NATIONAL PARK--HEAVY TIMBER INFRASTRUCTURE

W. jude Leblanc

United States

fatorzs

Adam Hatvani

Attila Vigh

Tibor Dékány

sporaarchitects

Hungary

Gauja Park Gateway

Inness Yeoman

Mackintosh School of Architecture

+122 points Buildner University Rankings!
United Kingdom

THE BARK BRIDGE

Michel Boucquillon

Donia Maaoui

Italy

Wooden way bridge

Maria Bugrova

Sergei Beliaev

Anastasiia Grek

Ivan Polyakov

Russian Federation

LĪKUMOTS BRAUKT

Sebastian Ginsberg

Chile

Project ID 17390

Normunds Broks

Latvia

THE FROG. A hybrid wooden footbridge for Gauja National Park

Marco Verde (principal designer and project manager)

Nicola Dessì (studio assistant)

ALO s.r.l.

Italy

Gauja river bridge

Valentina Tkachenko

Liudmila Vostrikova

Alexandra Babarika

Russian Federation

Wooded Pathway

Guillermo Quagliano

Argentina

Gauja LifeFrame

Alessandro Giulio

Daniela Arriagada

Henry Marroquin

United States

Gauja Trinity at Gauja National Park

Jarrod Pope

Ilse Rojas

Jamil Williams

Andrew Hansen

United States

Suspended Connection

Cody Jones

Cody Kotrlik

Adolfo Luna

Brandon Lang

United States

Gauja National Park Footbridge

Fedor Malyshev

Alexander Malyshev

Mir

Russian Federation

GAUJA RECYCLE BIRD NEST BRIDGE

Maria Claudia Angeles

Cristian Eduardo Tipián Cancino

Mirian Liseth Guevara Guerrero

Kevin Jhans Moncada Upiachihua

Peru

Thomas Melville

United States

Transience

Paul Mayencourt

Mohamed Ismail

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

+72 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

Gauja National Park Footbridge

Paul Kaloustian

Lebanon

Connect Parks Bridge

Kohsaku Mitsuhashi

Japan

Enter Gauja

Max Latour

Technical University of Delft

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Netherlands

Seethrough Footbridge

João Sá couto

Diogo Mina

Portugal

Gauja National Park Footbridge

Maxim Nasab

United States

Adventures of the oval in the park

Leonid Emdin

Russian Federation

The Two Souls Bridge

Simone Vioglio

Giancarlo Nisi

Giacomo Crosetti

Italy

Fortified footbridge

Nils Hogle

Isabelle Sahba

KTH Royal institute of Technology

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Sweden

gauja riverbridge

Don-marc pascal Oppenländer

Duale Hochschule Badenwürttemberg Mosbach

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Germany

The Media For Both Sides

Hsin-yin Tu

Chu-yun Cheng

Taiwan

Gauja Never-Ending Bridge

Artem Tsoy

Alexandra Sakhip-gareyeva

Alexandr Sochkov

Kazakhstan

Embrace

Wang Fan

China

Alexey Myakota

Lidiia Gribakina

OOO "ADM"

Russian Federation