Merchant Square Footbridge, London, United Kingdom. Architect: Knight Architects Limited, 2014.

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Set across the Paddington Basin, just south of the Merchant Square development, this jewel of a bridge is a ‘polite’ and understated pedestrian crossing as much as spectacular sculptural piece of public art. Due to its skewed alignment, the bridge generates a dramatic fanning motion when opening similar to that of a traditional Japanese hand fan. The five beams forming the deck open in sequence, with the first rising to an angle of 80 degrees and the last achieving the required clearance over the canal of 2.5m tall by 5.5m wide at mid-channel. The structure of the bridge consists of 5 independent cantilevers 25m in span, propped at the tip in the ‘closed’ condition. Each cantilever is balanced by a counterweight formed by a series of solid steel plates, profile-cut to the form of the landscape in the ‘open’ state. The cantilever beams consist of slender fabricated steel box girders, tapering in depth at the tip to an optimal profile. When closing the cantilevers interlock to form a