Explorations Architecture has won an RIBA competition to design a new foot and cycle bridge across the River Soar in Leicester.
The practice, working with Buro Happold, beat Allies & Morrison, Knight Architects, Moxon Architects and McDowell & Benedetti in the contest.
Jim Eyre, founder of Wilkinson Eyre and RIBA adviser for the latest competition, said: 「The design displays imagination and economy of needs, using only necessary materials combined in an intelligent, elegant and purposeful way. These talented architects could become a force to be reckoned with in bridge design.」
Last month Explorations Architecture and Buro Happold also won a competition to design a rail bridge in Liffey near Dublin, beating firms including Foster & Partners.
Commenting on the similarity between the Leicester and Liffey bridges, a spokesman for Buro Happold said: 「Both bridges are suspension type structures and are similar their visual form, but each is of a different scale and has presented different engineering challenges.」
BD spoke to James Sinclair at Leicester Regeneration, the city's urban regeneration company, who was unperturbed by the similarities. "They're different in scale," he said. "I wasn't aware [of the similarity] at the time of the presentations, as the Ireland design was embargoed.
"We picked what we think is an extremely suitable bridge design for the location, we're not aggravated or upset."