Design Concept for a Greened Timber Truss Bridge in City Area

Benjamin Kromoser, Martin Ritt, Alexandra Spitzer, Rosemarie Stangl and Friedrich Idam
Additional contact information
Benjamin Kromoser: Institute of Structural Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Peter-Jordan-Straße 82, 1190 Vienna, Austria
Martin Ritt: designkollektiv GmbH, Rochusgasse 6/1, 1030 Wien, Austria
Alexandra Spitzer: designkollektiv GmbH, Rochusgasse 6/1, 1030 Wien, Austria
Rosemarie Stangl: Institute of Soil Bioengineering and Landscape Construction, Peter-Jordanstraße 82/III, 1190 Vienna, Austria
Friedrich Idam: HTBLA Hallstatt, Abteilung für Holz- und Restauriertechnik, Lahnstraße 69, 4830 Hallstatt, Austria

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Properly designed wooden truss bridges are environmentally compatible construction systems. The sharp decline in the erection of such structures in the past decades can be led back to the great effort needed for design and production. Digital parametric design and automated prefabrication approaches allow for a substantial improvement of the efficiency of design and manufacturing processes. Thus, if combined with a constructive wood protection following traditional building techniques, highly efficient sustainable structures are the result. The present paper describes the conceptual design for a wooden truss bridge drawn up for the overpass of a two-lane street crossing the university campus of one of Vienna’s main universities. The concept includes the greening of the structure as a shading design element. After an introduction, two Austrian traditional wooden bridges representing a good and a bad example for constructive wood protection are presented, and a state of the art of the production of timber trusses and greening building structures is given as well. The third part consists of the explanation of the boundary conditions for the project. Subsequently, in the fourth part, the conceptual design, including the design concept, the digital parametric design, the optimization, and the automated prefabrication concept, as well as the potential greening concept are discussed, followed by a summary and outlook on future research.

Keywords: wooden trusses; timber bridges; timber engineering; greened structures; vertical green; sustainable structural engineering; digital design; parametric design; automated construction; resource-efficient structural engineering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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