It looks like a fan, it moves like a fan, but it's actually a bridge.
According to Dezeen Magazine, U.K.-based company Knight Architects, in collaboration with structural engineering firm AKT II, recently finished a movable footbridge in Paddington, London, that opens and closes like a traditional Japanese fan.
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Spanning about 65 feet across the Grand Union Canal, the footbridge is made up of five steel beams that are lifted and lowered using hydraulic jacks.
Project architect Bartlomiej Halaczek told Dezeen that the design of the bridge, which has playfully been nicknamed the “Scissorhands Bridge” by some social media users, was inspired by the desire to create a "beautiful and memorable structure that is modest in its appearance most of the time, but when raised, it generates the 'wow' moment."
The fan bridge is the result of a competition that Knight Architects won in 2012 to design the pedestrian bridge in Paddington. Architects' Journal wrote at the time that the company had "beaten a top-secret shortlist" for the honor.
H/T This Is Colossal
According to Dezeen Magazine, U.K.-based company Knight Architects, in collaboration with structural engineering firm AKT II, recently finished a movable footbridge in Paddington, London, that opens and closes like a traditional Japanese fan.
(Story continues below.)
Spanning about 65 feet across the Grand Union Canal, the footbridge is made up of five steel beams that are lifted and lowered using hydraulic jacks.
Project architect Bartlomiej Halaczek told Dezeen that the design of the bridge, which has playfully been nicknamed the “Scissorhands Bridge” by some social media users, was inspired by the desire to create a "beautiful and memorable structure that is modest in its appearance most of the time, but when raised, it generates the 'wow' moment."
pedestrian bridge opens over paddington basin #architecture #civilengineering #bridgedesign http://t.co/hViqNLoHKW pic.twitter.com/pnhJ9wFYaB
— designboom (@designboom) October 1, 2014The new Fan Bridge outside my office
in Paddington raised today for a flurry of photographers with tripods .. and me. pic.twitter.com/5d0b6PnvtG
— Ann-Marie Plume (@TiddleyOmPomPom) September 18, 2014Standard bridge behaviour in Paddington Basin #London #wtf pic.twitter.com/gy7BRL0kng
— Stefanie Coutts (@stefx_123) September 16, 2014The fan bridge is the result of a competition that Knight Architects won in 2012 to design the pedestrian bridge in Paddington. Architects' Journal wrote at the time that the company had "beaten a top-secret shortlist" for the honor.
H/T This Is Colossal