In the coming years, thousands of prestressed concrete bridges in Germany will have to be replaced. The established approach is to dismantle these structures, crush them, and recycle their materials. The research project Unbuilding Bridges explores the possibilities that emerge when bridges are understood not merely as material resources, but as a source of reusable building components for architecture.
Drawing on existing bridge structures, the project investigates strategies for controlled deconstruction, the analysis of existing structural systems, and their transformation into new architectural contexts. At its core lies the question of how the structural capacities of bridge components can be preserved and made available for new architectural applications.
Unbuilding Bridges brings together architectural design, structural engineering, material assessment, deconstruction, and construction practice. In collaboration with partners from academia, industry, and the public sector, the project develops strategies for the reuse of bridge components and investigates the technical, logistical, and regulatory conditions required to enable it. Its aim is to translate insights from research and teaching into practical applications and to demonstrate the reuse of infrastructural components through built examples.
