The Footbridge Design Ideas Competition sought new ideas to help inform Network Rail in their design and installation of fully accessible pedestrian footbridges across the UK rail network.
The Footbridge Design Ideas Competition sought new ideas to help inform Network Rail in their design and installation of fully accessible pedestrian footbridges across the UK rail network.
Squire & Partners’ entry, ‘Velox’, was inspired by the blurred image created when a speeding train passes through a station, and designed to celebrate pedestrian movement on the platform and over the tracks.
On each platform, two precast concrete frame structures house a lift and the spine for the staircase. Coated in clear concave acrylic panels, the fluting effect creates a blurred image of an object moving behind, such as the lift car moving up and down the shaft or a pedestrian ascending the staircase.
The bridge and stair are expressed as a single flowing object that weaves up, around and between the fluted elements. To contrast the colourless acrylic panels, the stair and bridge are shrouded with vertical metal bars of varying colour, inspired by the memory of Edmondson’s traditional card train tickets.The closely placed bars allow just enough space to perceive the motion of a person walking across the bridge.
The entry was featured in an exhibition at the RIBA in February 2019.
