zaragoza-bridge-pavilion-in-spain-as-symbol-of-zaragoza-expo-2008-by-zaha-hadid

Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion is a symbol of Expo 2008 built on Ebro River and a British architecture named Zaha Hadid has experimented with this amazing concept covered by glass fiber concrete from Austrian Company. This stunning concept is 275 meters long and its outer skin has around 29,000 triangles made of innovative sustainable material. The structure of this pavilion promises to be the world class because of its multi level exhibition area focusing on water sustainability. Zaha Hadid has managed to create this magnificent gladiolus shape with a natural air conditioning.

The Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion is organized around 4 main objects, or “pods” that perform both as structural elements and as spatial enclosures. The Bridge Pavilion design stems from the detailed examination and research into the potential of a diamond shaped section – which offers both structural and programming properties. As in the case of space-frame structures, a diamond section represents a rational way if distributing forces along a surface.

Underneath the floor plate, a resulting triangular pocket space can be used to run utilities. Floors inside each pod are located at the Expo principal levels: +201.5m (the soffit of the bridge is at +200m, flood protection minimum level of the Ebro River at the location of the Bridge Pavilion) +203m, +206m and +207.5m for the upper level.

The diamond section has also been extruded along a slightly curved path. The extrusion of this rhombus section along different paths has generated the four separate ‘pods’ of the Bridge Pavilion. The stacking and interlocking of these truss elements (the ‘pods’), satisfies two specific criteria: optimizing the structural system, and allowing for a natural differentiation of the interiors, where each pod corresponds to a specific exhibition space.

The pods are stacked according to precise criteria – aimed at reducing the section of the bridge as much as possible where the span is longer (approximately 185m from the island in the middle of the river to the right bank), and enlarging it where the span is shorter (85m from the island to the Expo riverbank). One long pod spans from the right riverbank to the island, where the other three are grafted into it, spanning from island to left bank.