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Inhabited Bridge London

RIBA Ideas Competition, England, UK – River Thames Architecture Contest

27 May 2009

London Bridge 800 : Design an Inhabited Bridge

New RIBA Ideas Competition

The RIBA is pleased to announce the launch of an ideas competition which is being organised to mark the 800th anniversary of the opening of the first London Bridge in 1209AD.

Inhabited Bridge London

Old London Bridge was an inhabited bridge and the competition asks today’s designers to imagine a new version of the inhabited bridge, based on the present structure (which for the purpose of the competition is to be deemed strong enough to carry buildings on its deck). The competition is being organised on behalf of The Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects – A Livery Company of the City of London.

The result of the competition will be announced at the 800th Anniversary Fair of London Bridge on Saturday 11 July by The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor of London. Winning and selected entries from the competition will also be publicised as part of the anniversary celebrations.

“The Lord Mayor is delighted that the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects is to run an architectural competition in conjunction with and to support the London Bridge Anniversary Fair and my appeal. They have our full support in this exciting project which we hope will produce some stunning and unique entries”. – extract from Lord Mayor’s Appeal.

The competition is open to architects and students of architecture, and the brief will be available to download from www.architecture.com/competitions from Thursday 28th May. The deadline for submissions is 25th June.

Location: River Thames, central London, England, UK

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The first bridge was opened in 1864 and was designed by Joseph Cubitt For this reason, the use of the original bridge gradually declined. It eventually became too weak to support modern trains, and was therefore removed in 1985 – all that remains is a series of columns crossing the Thames and the southern abutment, which is a Grade II listed structure.