A Bridge is More Than a Bridge: Aesthetics, Cost and Ethics in Bridge Design

A utilitarian economic approach dominates most engineering decisions, often confusing between cost and value. The consequences of this approach in bridge design have led to extremes of deficiency and excess: standardization of short- and medium-span bridges that underestimate appearance and context on the one hand and construction of iconic bridges on the other. Such bridges, even if they are not often built, have a great impact on the perception of bridge engineering. The general notion is that bridge aesthetics will result in a greater economic burden. This is not true. This increase only happens if we understand aesthetics as superfluous and not as something that is intrinsic to the work itself.