Transcendent freeway infrastructure - a modern gateway to Melbourne
It is the rare example where infrastructure and design meet to produce an outstanding result, especially when it comes to a freeway. Here the design for noise attenuation blurs the boundaries between what are functional noise walls, sculptural features and gateways.
The project is 5 kilometers in length, passing between two distinct conditions: the Craigieburn grasslands and the expanding urban fringe. The design is a result of expressing the relationship between the freeway and these two distinct conditions.
Link: Architecture Australia - Craigieburn Bypass
Link: VicRoads - Craigieburn Bypass
Firm: Taylor Cullity Lethlean
Firm: Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects
Artist: Robert Owen
Via: Archinect
Via: Arquitectearte
The project includes three series of sculptural sound walls, a pedestrian bridge and design parameters for road bridges, crash barriers and retaining structures, creating a unified roadway to be experienced at freeway speed.
There are two basic wall conditions. The steel Curtain Wall is of concave and convex folded Corten steel produces a gently undulating rusted wave floating on a recessed dark concrete base. In contrast, the translucent Scrim Wall adjacent to residential neighborhoods is composed of patterned acrylic panels and repeated vertical louvers.
A major part of the work is a new pedestrian bridge designed as a gateway to the distant city of Melbourne, visible on the horizon through the lifted ‘curtain’ of the arch of the bridge. The bridge, a complex curve in plan and elevation, is a tubular steel truss faced with the same austenitic steel as the main sound walls, which at this point appear to leap over the road in a gesture of welcome or farewell.
View Land+Living Maps in a larger map
Cool
Design Inspiration Galore