The board of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District recently voted unanimously to approve a $76 million funding plan for installation of steel-cable nets 20 feet beneath the east and west edges of the bridge that are intended to deter people from leaping to their deaths or catch them if they do.

The net, suspended from posts, will have a slightly upward slope, and will collapse a bit if someone lands in it, making it difficult for the jumper to climb out. The bridge district will deploy a retrieval device to pluck jumpers from the net. But this will not be the first net to span beneath the Golden Gate, which, when it was constructed, was the longest suspension bridge in the world.

When building the Golden Gate Bridge, the lead structural engineer insisted on the installation of a safety net even though its $130,000 cost was deemed exorbitant. Over the four years of its construction, the net saved 19 men, who named themselves the “Halfway to Hell Club.”

The safety measure, however, was not entirely successful — in one case, a catwalk collapsed and a dozen men were plunged into the water, becoming entangled in the net along the way. A few survived, rescued by a crab boat, but ten men died. Today, there’s a plaque on the south western side of the bridge at the entrance to the west sidewalk dedicated to the workers who died that day.

A Swedish design studio aims to bring new functionality to a century-old bridge in Stockholm, fitting 50 residential units into the framework below while creating a pedestrian path and linear park on the paved thoroughfare above.

In many cases, new bridges are constructed while their predecessors remain active, so why not use the old adjacent one for something new instead of carefully dismantling it? That’s what Urban Nouveau asks (and answers).

“Gamla Lidingöbron is unique and its cultural historical value increases with time,” say the architects. “It is more resourceful to fix the existing structure than to create tonnes of garbage by demolishing it. The bridge contains public memory and is an important symbol for Stockholm.”

Selling the newly built and centrally located two-story homes (with wonderful views) would bring in the revenue required to renovate the structure for its new use over the next few years while the new bridge is constructed. These units would also take advantage of the existing truss system holding up the bridge structure, requiring less energy and effort to build in the first place.

Getting this idea to go viral could, as it did with the High Line in NYC, help it become a reality. “Rather than conservation, this project is about restoring and developing a historic structure as a way to save it from demolition. After publishing our proposal in local media we received mostly positive comments from the local community. A public debate has started. With global support we will bring this project to reality.”

Unlike other arts, architecture is generally limited by practical matters, including what materials can do, how things stand up, and in most cases (but not so much this one) an array of challenging local building codes.

A firm in Mumbai, India called sP+a developed this vaulted brick library roof with a playful purpose in mind, allowing people to walk up and over it like a bridge to cross the school grounds it sits in the middle of — on a cool evening, the heat-absorbing bricks also create a cozy open-air reading area.

The idea is conceptually simple: the ground simply extends up and over the top. In most places, a railing would be required, if the steepness didn’t stop the design in its tracks, but not here.

“On our first visit to the site it was interesting to see geodesic structures built by an engineer for a few of the school buildings, we were somewhat encouraged by this to pursue a project that followed from a construction intelligence,” explains sP+a. “We hence parsed through several possible material configurations ranging from concrete shells to brick vaults for building this ‘architectural landscape’.”

“The design team became interested in the material efficiencies of the Catalan tile vault from the 16th century, its use by Spanish architect Guastavino in the early 19th century, and the details used in the work of uruguayan engineer and architect Eladio Dieste. to articulate a pure compression form for the library, sP+a used rhinoVAULT — a form-finding plug-in developed by the block research group at ETH zürich. consequently, the Maya Somaiya Library is the result of lessons learned from different time periods as well as geographic locations.”

A pair of island municipalities between Denmark and Iceland in the North Atlantic Ocean has been bridged by a work of architecture and engineering, a town hall that crosses a river below and features a green roof bridge above.

Designed by Henning Larsen Architects of Copenhagen, this new town hall for Norðragøta blends naturally into its surroundings. Despite an angular modern shape, its colors and greenery tie it to surrounding stones and lush grasslands.

The structure is relatively small and thin, as much a bridge as a building, and made to be visited by locals and travelers alike. Inside, tall glazing frames the surrounding landscape and a glass section of floor offers views of the river flowing below.

“A central theme in traditional Faroese architecture is the blurred line between nature and building, the fact that the spectator has difficulties distinguishing where the landscape ends and the building begins,” says designer Ósbjørn Jacobsen.

“The primary conceptual idea behind the design of the town hall is driven by the notion of this fleeting line between landscape and building.” A light and sound installation designed to pair with the structure welcomes visitors to cross it above or enter from below.

Weighing close to 10,000 pounds, the complex shape and curvy form of this stainless steel bridge reflects the multi-axis printers that made it, line by molten line, and help highlight the potential of metal-printing technologies.

The MX3D Bridge was designed by Joris Laarman Lab (with engineering help from Arup and other partners) and spans just over 40 feet. It is constructed from a new type of steel, laid down by a team of robots. There is a certain roughness that is a byproduct of the printing process, which could be buffed away, but also may be left to highlight the novel method of construction.

Tucked in a linear warehouse with ordinary-shaped tools and materials, the design really stands out — it is full of winding curves, demonstrating possibilities for complex forms for architectural, industrial, maritime and space applications. Shot out beyond Earth’s orbit, machines like these may build the first non-terrestrial colonies on the moon or Mars using local materials.

This first bridge, however, which has been going through design and construction phases for a long time now, we be installed over a canal in Amsterdam next year, after being subjected to rigorous load tests and analyzed so engineers can learn from and iterate on its design. Given its unusual shape, it doesn’t fit typical building codes — new ones may need to be written for its future counterparts.