Community Corner
Building Bridges in Maplewood
Students learn basic of engineering and architecture at library program.
Budding Frank Lloyd Wrights and Zaha Hadids filled Maplewood Memorial Library last month for the first part of a new program called “Design Foundations: Bridge Workshop.” Presented by local architects Camilla Foulks Zelevansky and Huzefa Irfani of Studiovert, the workshop introduced SOMA students to the basics of bridge building.
Sixteen enthusiastic kindergarten through 2nd graders attended the inaugural session, which focused on beam bridges and arch bridges. (A session directly following was for 3rd to 5th graders). The architects explained that a beam bridge, the oldest and simplest type, can be as basic as a line of stones laid across a stream. They pointed out that one of the most famous arch bridges, the Bayonne Bridge, is over one mile long – about the distance from the Main Library to the Hilton Library.
The students learned about piers (the supports along the middle), abutments (the supports at each end of the deck) and span (the distance between the supports). Participants lined up to create a human bridge, giving the architects an opportunity to point out how tension (holding) and depression (pushing) can affect a structure’s strength.
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Next, the children constructed their own three-dimensional bridges out of magazines and cardboard. It didn’t take long before they discovered how to apply some key principals of sound bridge-building. For example, they realized that their structures would be stronger and more durable if they reinforced the bottoms of the piers with tape before gluing them to the cardboard base.
“It was easy to make,” said Piper Davenport, age 6, showing off her impressive construction. Her mother, Candice, said, “She’s always building things around the house from paper, tape – whatever is lying around. She’s like MacGyver!” Piper said when she grows up she wants to “make stuff for sick animals” like prosthetic limbs. “I read about it in a magazine,” she said.
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As members of the planning board of the South Orange/Maplewood Bicycle Coalition, Zelevansky and Irfami are involved in advocating for the replacement of an old, unused bridge in South Orange with a pedestrian and bike-friendly bridge and path.
After Zelevansky’s two children participated in a similar bridge workshop at New York City’s Center for Architecture, she decided that “it would be great to bring this to kids in South Orange and Maplewood. At this age, kids are really good at building and can intuitively grasp certain design properties.”
Children’s librarian Irene Langlois agreed. “The kids are learning math, measuring, spatial relations – and they’re having fun at the same time.” As the head of the library’s extremely popular Lego Club, she saw first-hand the demand for similar types of programs.
“When Camilla and Huzefa approached me with the idea, I jumped at the chance,” Langlois said. “We’re developing the engineers and architects of the future.”
Design Foundations is open to K-5th graders in South Orange and Maplewood. The next session, scheduled for March 24, will focus on suspension bridges. Registration is recommended; call 973-762-1560 for more information.