Bridge = Monument

architects 3LHD
project Memorial Bridge, Rijeka, Croatia
written by Saša Randić

 

In an attempt to describe the difference between building and architecture, Heidegger uses the bridge as an example of a place which defines the space surrounding it and gives meaning to the surrounding shores which would otherwise serve merely as the land’s boundaries. In precisely such a way, bridges played the key role in determining the central space of Rijeka during the 1990s, after a series of unrealised attempts from previous periods to build the area of the city called the Delta. Certainly, a key moment is the construction of Memorial Bridge, dedicated to Croatian soldiers of the homeland war, designed by the architectural studio 3LHD from Zagreb. The group won first prize in the 1997 competition following the city council’s decision to build a memorial to the soldiers in the form of a pedestrian bridge over the Mrtvi Canal, continuing on from Ban Jelačić Square towards the upper end of the Delta.