Peace Bridge

Tbilisi is a city marked by a controversial recent past and an extremely fragmented cultural, social and political framework: a capital city in search of a national identity and a role as a promoter of the country's economic and social revitalization. This effort has also passed through investment in modern infrastructure and fine architecture such as the Peace Bridge: a project that not only meets obvious practical and infrastructural needs, but also embodies important symbolic and cultural instances, standing as an ideal link between the city's past and present.

To the west is the historic city, with the old Bericoni district; to the east is Rike Park, the gateway to the more recently built Tbilisi, of which the bridge is an ideal continuation, accompanying pedestrians to the historic core of the center. But the Peace Bridge is not only a point of transit and passage: the heart of the structure becomes a square from which people can enjoy a privileged vantage point over the city, while the materials with which it is built and its sinuous forms make it a characteristic and recognizable element of the city's fabric, a landmark and element of identification.

Designed by the studio of architect Michele De Lucchi (now AMDL CIRCLE), the bridge consists of a pedestrian walkway 160 m long and 4.80 m wide in the central portion. The slender metal structure of the footbridge is topped by a sinusoidal-shaped roof made of steel trusses and glass plates. Designed to appear as a single lightweight, shell-like membrane under which the footbridge appears to be suspended, it is anchored to the two banks of the river only through four fork-shaped pillars. Its design is derived from simple geometric concepts: the curve defining the extrados of the roof is generated by three tangent circumferences;

on the curve defined by their union runs the vertex of a parabola with the concavity facing downward, which, in turn, defines the primary arches of the roof; another curve, finally, generated by five tangent circumferences, cuts the lower branches of the parabola, completing the desired shape. The geographical area of high seismic risk, the dynamic stresses due to the transit of people and the strong gusts of wind that characterize the area have imposed specific studies, carried out with careful and sophisticated analysis techniques, in order to determine the safety coefficients necessary to ensure resistance toward such events.