INHABITED GARDEN BRIDGE BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM FOR 21ST CENTURY
Piazza Gentile da Fabriano, Rome, Italy
The location of this bridge is symbolic. Its west flank is located on the axis of Viale Angelico and Via di Porta Angelica, which lead to Piazza San Pietro, linking the bridge with Vatican. Its east flank provides a focal point for three streets merging on Piazza Gentile da Fabriano. The axis of the bridge, aligned with Via Guido Reni, extends eastwards past Palazzeto dello Sport and reaches the Roman Mosque. The bridge links Vatican with the Mosque through an ephemeral axis. The complexity and dynamism of the inner workings of the two bridge buildings, offering a total of 30,000 m2 of art and shopping floor space, contrast with the smooth and flowing lines of their external appearance - a parallel with the outward coherence and the inner tensions of both Christianity and Islam. One of the buildings represents Islam the other Christianity. The garden deck, 215 meters long by 38 meters wide, suspended beneath them represents the concept of Eden or Paradise, which unites the two religions. The two buildings and the deck are intertwined in one structural system. The buildings would collapse outwards were the deck ( the Paradise ) to be removed.
The project was developed with Tim Macfarlane and costed by Davis Langon Everest. A model of the bridge was especially commissioned for the 1996/97 Royal Academy of Arts Living Bridges Exhibition in London.
