Weight-Bearing Paper Bridge

Designboom.com recently published a story that described environment artist’s Steve Messam’s construction of a weight-bearing bridge built upon rock foundations with a spanning arch that comprised 20,000 sheets of bright red paper.
The design shape and concept – sans paper – caught my eye because a similar, arched design would make an interesting entryway sign. Art-inspired design can lead to intersting sign shapes
According to the website, the project began with wire-wrapped, stone-filled cages that secured the structure on both sides of the river. During construction, the artist added a wooden form that shaped the arc, which allowed it to receive the paper. Once the foundations were placed, each sheet was inserted — sans adhesives – and the pictured crescent came into being.
One assumes the paper was installed on a windless day.
The arch papers were weather resistant and color fast; the completed project lifespan was only ten days. Upon deconstruction, the papers were recycled and the stones returned to the riverbed.
The installation occurred in the Rural Lake District National Park, Cumbria, UK, as part of a lakes culture project.
I once designed a brick-based, bridge-shaped subdivision entryway sign that stood within a landscaped water pond. The signage part comprised backlit, serif channel letters that nicely reflected on the water. Most interesting was designing the foundation and electric passageways that would be underwater.
see the full story at http://www.designboom.com/art/steve-messam-paper-bridge-cumbria-uk-05-13-2015/?utm_campaign=monthly&utm_medium=e-mail&utm_source=subscribers