Interconnected: A Copenhagen Bridge That Gives Cyclists Two Speeds and a Park in Between

Most bridges ask one question: how do you get across? Interconnected asks a second one: what if some people don't want to hurry? The answer is a crossing for Copenhagen that splits its users by tempo. Commuters take a direct, uninterrupted route on the lower level. Leisure riders take a separate path that drifts through planted terraces above. A single organic shell wraps both, so the bridge reads as one gesture.

The project was designed by Bryce Jarman, Stephen Travers, Liam Ryan and Caitlin Chin, and published as a project on uni.xyz. It sets itself in one of the world's most bike-friendly cities, where cycling is part of civic identity as well as a way to get around. The team's aim is a bridge that celebrates that culture and also works as public space, a place to linger over the water rather than simply cross it.

Three Stacked Layers Resolve the Conflict Between Movement and Pause

The presentation board makes the strategy legible at a glance. The aerial render shows the bridge winding across the water, and the axonometric diagrams pull it apart into its components: green space, leisure path, commuter path and an opening mechanism. The upper level holds landscaped pockets with trees, seating and flexible lawns, set at several points along the span. The leisure path weaves between them. Below, the commuter path runs straight and fast for daily riders who need efficiency more than scenery.

This is the project's sharpest move. Shared paths force a slow family ride and a 9am commute into the same lane, and both are worse for it. Separating them vertically gives each its own rhythm without either being designated second-class. The leisure route isn't a detour; it is a park in the sky that extends Copenhagen's public realm out over the harbour. The inclusion of an opening mechanism in the diagrams also shows the team accepting that the bridge must coexist with the waterway beneath it.

A Scaled Shell That Turns the Commute Into an Interior

At eye level the bridge feels much less like infrastructure. A white, scaled canopy curves over a timber-clad commuter deck, and a cyclist slips through an angled opening in the shell. In the second view, the deck leads into a timber-lined tunnel beneath the scaled underside, with glass railings keeping the waterfront buildings in sight. The timber gives the fast route some warmth and enclosure, while the glass holds onto views of the city.

The designers describe the shell as hugging the flowing curves of the pathways, holding the programme together in one continuous form. That matters in practice because the shell is what makes two separate decks feel like one place. The openings and the tunnel compress and release space for the commuter, so even the efficient route has a sequence. Many cycling bridges are pure engineering. Here the fast line is treated as architecture.

A Silhouette Built for the Harbour Skyline

At sunset the bridge becomes an undulating line across the water, framed by sailboat masts, a church spire and lit windows reflected in the surface. This is the bridge as the beacon the team describes: a landmark that announces Copenhagen's commitment to cycling. The low, rolling profile sits comfortably alongside the historic skyline instead of competing with the spire.

The image also hints at how the bridge works after dark. The café structure and rooftop terraces anchored at each end, along with the circular landscaped platforms set along the span, are meant to keep the upper level active. The team calls this an urban living room, open to commuters, tourists, families and first-time cyclists. A crossing that people choose to stay on becomes a destination in its own right.

Why This Project Matters

Interconnected takes cycling seriously enough to design for its different moods. The usual cycling bridge optimises for throughput and treats everything else as a nice extra. This one argues that a city's cycling culture includes the slow Sunday ride as well as the commute, and gives each its own deck instead of making them compete for one lane. The stacked section is a simple idea with clear spatial consequences, and the team carries it through from diagram to render.

The open question is how the organic shell, the opening mechanism and the planted upper level resolve structurally, and that is where future development should focus. As a proposition, though, the project makes a convincing case that infrastructure can also be public space. In a city that already rides, the next step is to build places where people want to stop.

View the Full Project

About the Designers

Designers: Bryce Jarman, Stephen Travers, Liam Ryan, Caitlin Chin

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Project credits: Interconnected by Bryce Jarman, Stephen Travers, Liam Ryan, Caitlin Chin.