Less and Better. Elements to Achieve Excellence in Bridge Design

This article discusses the elements for a good design, including the importance of beauty and context sensitiveness, to achieve design excellence. A good bridge is more than an economical, safe, and functional structure with an attractive appearance; it should contribute to the overall quality of its urban context or the natural landscape's beauty. A good bridge design must also embrace sustainability practices as part of collective action to reduce global warming and natural resources. No definitive guidelines to the design process exist. Therefore, bridge design is an art that uses scientific methods to solve the technical aspects. As each bridge has a specific purpose, agents, consequences and context, there are countless responses based on the engineer's knowledge, creativity and ethics. The critical idea reviewed in this article is how to improve the design practices to increase our bridges' quality and contribute to a better world. "Less and better" is to be read "do better with less", incorporating the sustainability principle of "doing more with less" and the fundamental principles to achieve design excellence in bridge design "do better".