The historic Löwenbrücke (Lion’s Bridge) in the Tiergarten park in Berlin-Mitte was built in 1838 according to plans by the architect Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse and serves as a foot and cycle path over a side area of the “Neuer See”. The striking and eponymous feature of the design are the four cast-iron lions, through the interior of which the tension of the suspension ropes is diverted and transferred via tie rods into the foundations and then into the ground.
However, the chosen timber truss construction of the suspension bridge had to undergo multiple renovations early on and was then almost destroyed during the Second World War. A later reconstruction, based on the historical model, had to be dismantled in 2014 for safety reasons due to significant weathering of the timber structure.
schlaich bergermann partner was commissioned with the heritage-conserving redesign for the reconstruction of the in both object and structural planning. The structure can be described as a suspension bridge with a timber framework trough. The stiffness of the timber framework allows for the efficient absorption of asymmetrical traffic loads by the two double support cables. The existing abutments on both sides of the river were the local constraints for the design. The aim was for the new design to be as close as possible to the original design without repeating the structural errors.
