Humber Bridge Strategic Masterplan

Hull, United Kingdom | 2018-

The Humber Bridge strategic masterplan aims to create a destination that will use the Humber Estuary’s iconic landmark as the catalyst to excite and inspire visitors to the area, stimulate a range of economic benefits, and create an accessible and enticing destination throughout the year.

The Humber Bridge is unique in the world due to the variety of experiences it offers while being crossed and observed. Working in collaboration with a team comprised of Ian Ritchie Architects, Atelier One, Atelier Ten, and Fourth Street, our strategy seeks to create a feeling of place by appealing to the auditory and visual senses; whether one is in a car, on a bicycle, on foot, or simply looking at the bridge from afar. The masterplan proposes a phased strategy over 10 years which brings together the Humber Bridge Board’s land with the Humber Bridge Country Park to create an engineered landscape of experiences and activities designed to encourage an appreciation of, and participation in, the Humber Bridge’s history, engineering, and its surrounding landscape.

The masterplan will create an ecologically valuable public space for both local inhabitants and tourists. The river’s northern bank is identified for most of the proposed Humber Bridge attractions, whilst the southern bank will develop as a pan-regional holistic masterplan. This strategy exploits the topography of an old quarry with new bridges and an engineered sculpture, and it takes advantage of microclimates to create unique gardens within new landforms. New bridges, walkways, and kinetic and sculptural installations will create visually attractive and viscerally thrilling experiences. The engineering challenges involved in creating the gardens and the Humber Bridge will become part of the experience.

The strategic masterplan was formally adopted in 2018 and is now being taken forward by the Humber Bridge Board.