The Helix Bridge

A walkway wrapped in two spiralling ribbons of stainless steel curves across the mouth of Marina Bay, and from a distance it reads less like a bridge than a strand of DNA laid on its side. The Helix, as it is officially called, carries only pedestrians, linking Marina Centre on the north shore with Marina South and the resorts beside Marina Bay Sands. It is about 280 metres long, and the twin coils that enclose the deck are both decoration and structure: they hold the bridge up.

The design came from an international team: the Australian practice Cox Architecture with the engineers Arup, working together with the Singapore firm Architects 61. Construction began in 2007, and the steelwork took roughly 650 tonnes of duplex stainless steel, plus around 1,000 tonnes of carbon steel used for a temporary truss that held everything in place while the helices were welded together. Because the central navigation channel of the bay had to stay open, the temporary trusses were lifted in at night by paired mobile cranes. Half of the bridge opened on 24 April 2010; the whole length followed on 18 July 2010, closing the promenade loop around the bay.

The DNA reference is deliberate. At night pairs of letters set into the structure, c and g, a and t, light up in red and green, standing for the four bases of the genetic code. Unlike real DNA, however, the spiral turns to the left, a quirk that earned the bridge a mock place in a "Left Handed DNA Hall of Fame". Shaded canopies of fritted glass and perforated steel mesh run along the inner coil, and four viewing platforms project from the sides toward the skyline. In its first year the Helix was named the best transport building at the World Architecture Festival, and it has since turned up in television and video games as shorthand for modern Singapore.

Getting there

The bridge lies in the Downtown Core of Singapore, about 1.2 km from the city centre, spanning Marina Bay between Marina Centre and Bayfront Avenue next to Marina Bay Sands. Bayfront MRT station is close to its southern end. The nearest airfield is Seletar Airport (XSP), about 14 km away, which handles a small number of regional flights; Singapore Changi Airport (SIN), the main international gateway, is about 17 km to the east.