Besides saving Copenhageners several minutes on their commutes, not to mention providing a safe and beautiful alternative to the noise and trafficked roads, visually Bryggebro connects two sides of Copenhagen - Islands Brygge with Havneholmen - while defining the space of the harbour.
At night the bridge stands as a lighted ribbon over the water thanks to built-in linear luminaires designed by Dissing + Weitling in collaboration with Martin Professional. The bridge's central spine, which divides the cycling from the walking area, is illuminated by Martin Architectural RailLight fixtures incorporated into each of the bridge's 1.2m high hand railings. As a built-in feature of the handrail, the dimmable single T5 tube RailLights were chosen as opposed to light poles or posts in order to provide an unobtrusive, hidden illumination source.
Further to the white light illumination is a coloured light scheme beneath the bridge from Martin Architectural Exterior 200 colour changers mounted at the end of the bridge's rotating span. Because the area is quite dark and there is no other lighting on the bridge, the result is a glowing spine powerfully illuminated in white hovering above colour accents and reflective shades beneath. Supply of the RailLight fixtures was by Lightmakers through Martin Scandinavia.
Jesper Henriksen of Dissing + Weitling comments, "We approached the project from a functional and architectural point of view and tried to be quite honest with the design. We're not trying to make some bold statement that 25 years from now will look dated. It should be functional, clean, aesthetic. We give the bridge fluidity by using the handrail. There's a lot to be gained by making the details look nice.
(Jim Evans)
