VLM bridge is part of a 2km intervention in Vilamoura XXI Avenue, to where AND-RÉ developed the landscape and urban furniture design. The project includes a pathway for pedestrians and cyclists, support equipment and resting areas, making possible for users to walk, run or cycle along the surrounding golf courses.
The wood and concrete bridge is conceived as a particular gesture in the path time line sequence. An exception moment in the path, intended not only as a functional structure, but also as a seductive site-specific artwork element.
The project aims to break the relation of the user with the street, in terms of visual/sound noise, by directing the attention to the lake view, were sun sets in the golf, enhancing the site-specific nature of the global work. This causes visual surprise, to entice the senses, avoiding the obvious, in a user-perspective view of architecture.
A 25 meters long and 2.5 meters high structural wood wall divides these two realities. One to rest and enjoy the calm sunset views, and the other with a street identity, as a straight long plane dynamically extended along the parallel lanes. This second reality is developed for the fast observation from inside the passing vehicles.
With the participation of the plastic artist Domingos Loureiro, 180 wood boards were painted and inserted in the big wall. Each board is painted in both sides, creating two 25 meters long images, for a different observation from the two traffic lanes. The images are invisible in a front view of the facade, but seen in a 45º angle, discovered with the car movement, like frames from a movie.
