Skywalk

Skywalk is a covered bridge for pedestrians and cyclists above Guertel – one of the most important boulevards in Vienna. It leads pedestrians from the metro station Spittelau over the most complicated traffic knot of the city to a small park in the residential zone opposite.

Project: Aneta Bulant-Kamenova, Klaus Wailzer

This project won a 2004 European architectural competition with 51 participants, Zaha Hadid included. The task was extremely complicated – to build one more bridge in a place, where several streets and tramlines on different levels are interwoven with four other bridges and two branches of the historic Otto Wagner city railway. Skywalk becomes an example of “parametric” design. Each of its elements stems from the necessities of the initial situation. That is why the bridge often changes its width, height and direction in accordance with the other urban components and seems like a living thing that squeezes through the dense urban mesh.
Its way pierces one of the pillars of the Otto Wagner Railway and at that point the width of the bridge is reduced, and widens again at the park exit. The main load-bearing steel girder is uninterrupted, but changes its height according to the variable constructional calculations. The floor level also corresponds to the level of the underlying streets and bridges, and the transitions are gradual, by means of ramps. The structure of the glazed facades is based on an economically-efficient, steady and monotonous grid.
The only element allowing for a special design, unlimited by necessity, was the roof. Nevertheless the architect chose a plain, horizontal element, unifying the whole bridge and bringing calm to this complex environment. Various heights in the interior space were produced, creating the discreet diversity of the interior. The glass surface of the walls and roof has white stripes printed all over it, protecting birds from colliding with the glass. The stripes produce graphic shadows in the interior. The light coming trough the glazed walls and the roof, the rhythmical and constantly changing shadow patterns enliven the bridge and create permanent contact between the passers-by and the environment. At night the bridge is an illuminated line and a connecting link for the heterogeneous cluster of the urban environment.

Project: Aneta Bulant-Kamenova, Klaus Wailzer (Architekturstudio Bulant & Wailzer)
Engineers: Wagner and Fritsch
Client: City of Vienna
Completion: August, 2007
Awards:
A silver medal and the special award of the Mayor of Sofia, “Interarch” 2006
The Austrian urban planning award “Otto Wagner” 2007
European Public Urban Space Award 2008, Barcelona, Spain; entry in the European archive of significant urban planning projects
European award “Climate Proteсtion”, 2008
Golden “Walk Space Award”, Austria, 2008