BRIDGE DESIGN – AESTHETICS AND FUNCTIONALITY

In the process of bridge design and construction it is not sufficient to take into account technical and economical aspects only. Aesthetic fitting into environment of structures in general and its functionality also play important role in bridge design. Bridges should also be viewed through their position in their environment, and not only as separate structures, which were supposed to meet only economical and structural demands. At present time, when day after day the number of erected bridges increases, aesthetic appearance becomes an important structural property. In this paper bridges as whole, will be analyzed first and than their parts, which by their position and shape help fitting bridges into environment will be briefly discussed. There are three conditions that an optimal and aesthetically acceptable structure has to fulfill. They are: structural efficiency, its economy and elegance (adjustability to the environment). At the moment there are several big highway construction project underway in Croatia. The paper will show our experience in aesthetical design of bridges. Big construction projects such as highway construction inevitably devastate the environment. Designer has to find an optimum from technical, economical, aesthetical and ecological point of view. Parts of the bridges are to be incorporated in the best possible way in one structure. There are two different ways of bridge design. One is l artisticr , where each bridge represents an artistic form and each structure is designed individually. The other is l industrializedr , where the main feature is standardization of structural parts. During the construction of highways in Croatia we tried to find the proper way between these two extremes.