preview

case study Leonardo Bridge Project Essay

Good Essays

When Leonardo da Vinci designed a 240 meters bridge it would have been the longest bridge in

the world. His plan was ambitious. In 1502, a skeptical sultan rejected Leonardo's design as

impossible, but 300 years civilization finally embraced the engineering principle - arches as

supports - underlying the construction. The bridge has been constructed, in Norway.

Now instead of spanning the Bosporus , his visionary creation was destined to span 500 years as

a bridge to another millennium. Vebjorn Sand, the man behind the modern project, has a site

with images and details. http://www.vebjorn-sand.com/thebridge.htm Leonardo Bridge Project
In 1502 Leonardo da Vinci did a simple drawing of a graceful bridge with a single span of …show more content…

Numerous sites were considered all over Norway

until the right one was found in the township of Ås spanning E-18, the highway linking Oslo and

Stockholm. Fundraising for the project also became a major responsibility for Sand. The next five

years required the ability to sustain the vision while building coalitions to undertake the

construction of what the Norwegian press would call "Vebjørn Sand's Leonardo Project."

The Norwegian Leonardo Bridge Project did not easily fall into place. Vebjørn Sand's celebrity in

Norway rests on his reputation as a young painter of considerable ability who gleefully joined the

public debate over the issue of the dominant Modernist orthodoxy. Sand supports rigorous

technical mastery required of classical art training. The Norwegian art academies no longer taught

those skills. As the Leonardo Bridge Project developed, this debate continued to grow more

heated in the Norwegian press. Sand's conceptual tribute to the Renaissance thinkers, and

Leonardo's vision, came under scathing criticism. Some said the bridge belonged in Disneyland;

others accused Vebjørn Sand of being a fascist.

Conceptually, Vebjørn Sand sees the project as a vivid meeting between the functional and

esthetical worlds. It is a reminder that the technology the human race has come to consider a

necessary part of daily life, was possible only by the deep faith the

Get Access