My competition entry for a new bridge over the Rochdale Canal provides the brief for this proposal. The scheme is part of the redevelopment of New Islington in Ancoats, Manchester by Urban Splash. The site was at the heart of the industrial revolution and the bridge design celebrates the decay and renaissance of the canal and its now almost forgotten significance.

Fragments of old boats are still to be found along the canal, in the old basins and boatyards. Rusting iron and weathered timber vessels, barely recognisable, display the remnant of this past world. The design process assimilates these remains, and investigates the sculptural possibilities of the associated materials, textures and lost construction techniques.