Madrid hides monuments and places that few tourists would expect to find in its streets: a fountain with pieces of the Berlin Wall, an Egyptian temple in the middle of a park, a neighborhood full of Asian restaurants called Chinatown… and also a 3D printed pedestrian bridge. The latter, a pioneer in its category, is in Alcobendas and is considered a milestone in Spanish civil engineering.
The bridge, 12 meters long and 1.75 meters wide, was designed by the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) to be fully functional and passable for walkers in the Castilla-La Mancha park.
Advanced technology and design inspired by nature
IAAC was inspired by organic and biometric architecture to create the design, which is reminiscent of intertwining branches. “Despite the fact that it is a revolutionary engineering work, it aims to fit into the landscape where it is located,” explains César Galera, architect and CEO of Control 3D.
“It was built in workshop and subsequently moved to the park. The only work that was done in situ were the foundations,” says Galera in his video dedicated to the bridge. Its installation, carried out by the ACCIONA group in 2016, was a breakthrough: until then, 3D printing had not been used to create structures of this type.
The footbridge is made up of eight pieces of concrete micro-reinforced with metal fiber. Because they were printed without the need for molds, their installation consumed less energy and generated less waste than traditional construction.
It is a showcase of technological innovation and an example of how urban planning can be transformed by paving the way for more sustainable designs. “Manufacturing a similar structure in concrete by traditional methods would have been practically impossible,” says Galera.