Bridge conceptual and aesthetic design is a critical and difficult issue in bridge engineering. Generally, the bridge design process includes four steps: conceptual design, preliminary design, detailed design and shop drawing preparation. Conceptual design is the most challenging step of the process and requires solid engineering fundamental knowledge, experience, creativity and imagination. Though the time involved in the conceptual design stage may be the least among the several design stages, the decisions made at this stage of the design will most significantly affect the detailed design, quality, risk and cost of the completed project. Aesthetic considerations not only significantly affect design and construction costs, but they also critically impact those who perceive and use a bridge. However, unlike structural bridge analyses, which can be performed using well established procedures and formulae, there are currently no simple universally accepted conceptual and aesthetic design methods and criteria. Though considerable effort has been focused on bridge aesthetics, only some general guidelines for bridge conceptual and aesthetic design of short and mid-span bridges have been developed. This special issue of the journal wants to promote and improve bridge conceptual and aesthetic design philosophy, methods and criteria. Submissions of special issue papers were overwhelming. We have selected 24 papers that cover a large area of bridge engineering, including short-to-medium span bridges, pedestrian bridges and long-span bridges. The papers describe new and innovative ideas, methods, procedures, criteria and art that have an impact on improving design practices and inspiration for contemporary design. Paper presentation topics are enumerated as follows:
Conceptual design and aesthetical consideration of cable-stayed bridges (six papers)
Conceptual design and aesthetics of pedestrian bridges (three papers)
Aesthetics innovation and practice of urban bridge design (one paper)
Conceptual design of railway and high-speed rail bridges (two papers)
Risk reduction at the bridge conceptual and aesthetic design stage by reviewing historic failures of pioneering bridges and novel and elegant designs (one paper)
How bridge engineers perform scheme creation and design independently and efficiently based on Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology (one paper)
The journey and characteristics of structural engineers recognized as heroes and how structural engineers can create outstanding structural designs (one paper)
General design philosophy and procedures of bridge conceptual design and aesthetics (three papers)
Innovations in bridge conceptual design and aesthetics based on different types of recently built unique bridge projects (six papers)
All the selected papers provide good bridge design examples that can serve as valuable design references for bridge design engineers. We trust that the special issue will promote the advancement of state-of-the-art bridge conceptual and aesthetical design. The special issue editors extend their appreciation to Dr Guido Morgenthal, the chair of SEI, the writers, the reviewers and IABSE publications manager, Ms Brindarica Bose, and staff members for the support and assistance that they provided in the preparation of this special issue.
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