CYTA FOOTBRIDGE IN LIMASSOL

Margarita Danou

The CYTA footbridge addresses the question of its urban context by interweaving existing and proposed car, pedestrian and bicycle circulation with its urban landscape, creating a seamless connection between the city and the Limassol coastline. At its southern end, a concrete platform extends toward the beach, functioning as a viewing balcony that offers unobstructed views of the sea and the surrounding coastal landscape. A glass elevator pierces the platform and, when illuminated at night, transforms into a large luminous beacon, projecting the movement of human silhouettes onto the beach. At the northern end, the bridge is anchored to an existing elevated concrete platform within the athletic park.
The bridge itself is conceived as a steel spatial structure spanning between two concrete platforms. It derives its orientation and physiognomy from the site and takes its scale, material qualities and structural finesse from the composite structural elements of the Limassol piers and the geometry of a fish skeleton. The steel truss is partly wrapped with aluminum panels, whereas its center is revealed as a light and delicate structure. The wooden floor of the bridge refers to the deck on the piers and relates to the horizontal wooden blinds on the existing plateau in the adjacent urban park. The vertical loads are carried by a multitude of slender inclined steel columns, the arrangement of which emerges from the fluid geometry of the existing columns and the orchard in the park.

The glass elevator and a sculptural concrete spiral staircase allow visitors to descent to a new widening along the coastal pedestrian promenade parallel to the shoreline, where a new exposed aggregate concrete surface is introduced. From this plateau, a timber platform will extend into the sea as a new pier, reinforcing the initial concept of a circulation network that guides people from the city centre toward and into the sea.

2015 - Nominated for the European Mies Van Der Rohe Prize

Project Gallery

PHOTO 1 Footbridge level facing the sea.jpg

PHOTO 2 Footbridge ground level facing the sea.jpg

PHOTO 3 Footbridge ground level facing inland .jpg

PHOTO 4 Footbridge ground level facing inland and the park.jpg

PHOTO 5 Footbridge ground level facing the park .jpg

PHOTO 6 Footbridge level and ground level plans .jpg

Margarita Danou CY

35 Iosif Hadjiosif Ave. | 2027 Nicosia