Conceptual Design for the Sunniberg Bridge

Abstract

This paper explains how a major engineer, Christian Menn, conceived of his design for the 1998 Sunniberg Bridge in Switzerland. Menn had given a brief outline of his approach in an earlier paper, and this paper works out the consequences of his ideas by putting them into numerical form and interpreting those results. This paper brings out the close connection between aesthetic choices and structural performance and also shows how an apparently complex form can be broken down into simple elements to justify the initial conceptual design. There is little published writing about the creative process of bridge engineering and nothing in detail in English on the Sunniberg Bridge.