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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2010

  • Work on this object began.

2015

2025

  • You found it!

Jiading Bridge (unbuilt)

This is a Jiading Bridge (unbuilt). It was designed by Heatherwick Studio and Thomas Heatherwick. It is dated 2010.

How can a traditional Chinese moon bridge meet today’s standards of accessibility?
The studio adapted the elegant S-curves of historical Chinese moon bridges to design a 65-foot-long waterway span for the Shanghai satellite town of Jiading. The hydraulic-powered bridge is constructed from threaded C-shaped sections: they flatten for wheelchairs and rear up into a hump, with pedestrian stairs, for passing boats underneath. Unlike a conventional drawbridge, this bridge is crossable in any position — up, down, or in between. The contrasting materials of the sections— exterior machined steel and interior bronze —visually accentuate the bridge’s transformative movement.

It is credited Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.

  • Rolling Bridge
  • painted mild steel, stainless steel cable, wood, aluminum.
  • Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.
  • HSP.12
  •

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/85006459/ |title=Jiading Bridge (unbuilt) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=11 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>