The Capri Island Bridge transforms an existing private vehicle focused bridge connection from the Isle of Capri to Surfers Paradise into a multimodal transit connection emphasising cycle and pedestrian accessibility. The Archipelago design team, in collaboration with Bonacci Infrastructure and the City of Gold Coast, have designed for delivery a bridge that will be a graceful and refined addition to the city fabric, and which embraces cyclist amenity to promote increased patronage

Our design team - working closely with Bonacci Infrastructure - has developed the overall bridge aesthetics and guided the functional integration of cycling, pedestrian and resident considerations to arrive at a bridge design that will enhance the experience of the river crossing whilst protecting the privacy of the surrounding community. The design adopts principles derived from Archipelago’s experience across many bridge projects, these principles being:

·       Design a Simple Bridge Structure ensuring the bridge is integrated into the surrounding landscape.

·       Enhance Views and Provide Privacy by using bridge elements to frame views into the landscape whilst concurrently maintaining the privacy of neighbouring properties.

·       Provide Consistency in Design elements through developing a suite of holistically considered components implemented across the project

·       Create a Comfortable Bridge Crossing adopting materials and arrangement that are attractive, robust, functional and respectful of local character to allow users to feel safe and comfortable whilst concurrently grounding the bridge sensitively within its local context.

Beyond the holistic and thoughtful composition of the bridge within the landscape, Archipelago developed the materiality, finishes and design arrangements and detailing for all visible bridge and connecting infrastructure components. Our design team working in partnership with the engineering team developed the balustrade design, shaped the piers and headstocks, composed the abutment and safety barrier arrangements and developed privacy screen designs integrating contextually appropriate abstracted graphics to enliven the bridge experience.

The design for this bridge is both refined and thoughtful, it will sit comfortably within the local community whilst efficiently performing its core function of connecting people between the Isle of Capri and Surfers Paradise. The simplicity of the bridge design is a credit to the considered collective efforts of the Bonacci and City of Gold Coast engineering teams and their combined receptiveness to the Archipelago urban design stewardship of the bridge aesthetics and surrounding landscape.

Archipelago have enjoyed a convivial and productive relationship with the City of Gold Coast and Bonacci Infrastructure on this project, the combined creative strength and pragmatic construction nous brought to the project by all parties has resulted in not only the highest quality project outcomes but also an efficient and enjoyable design process.

In leading the Urban Design and Landscape Architecture for this project, we were supported in our aesthetic and functional passion by the passion of the engineering team in their pursuit not only of a robust and efficient engineering solution but more importantly in the collective passion for an enduring, graceful and high amenity bridge connection for the users not the designers

“Not only will the legacy of this bridge be far more than the sum of its carefully considered parts, the iterative process by which the bridge design has been developed is a testament to the power of collaboration in driving a refined local infrastructure outcome where form and function are united to enhance the visual and physical experience of the river crossing.”