在基础设施高度发达的当下，全球的建筑师得以重新介入公共领域事务。住房危机、贫困和社会流动性的钥匙仍然在那些掌控资金、劳动力、能源和所有自然资源的机构手中。现代的基础设施网络已经在地球表面形成了一种新型人工地形，其意义应该从建筑学、人类学和地质学等角度重新审视。

“桥舍”项目开始于2015年秋季，是一系列以“基础设施建筑学”为主题的研究的局部成果，由同济大学与哥伦比亚大学联合开展。“基础设施建筑学”试图重置所有生产要素的消费和增殖方式。基于此，同济大学和哥伦比亚大学分别在上海和纽约运作两个相互平行的设计教学计划，以测试替代性的城市住宅形式的基础设施解决方案。该项目已经进行了一系列的研讨会、专题讨论会和实地调查，以构想能源、机动性和人居条件的未来形式。

从基础设施城市学的角度来看，桥梁是由翘曲的和折叠的表面组成的，这些异形的表面可以成为居住的场所。由此，该项目设想一座城市桥梁可以是“流动人口”的家园，也可以是新的城市生活的载体。通过收集他们自己的能源和降低对私有化的基础设施的依赖，“桥舍”社区是一个更大的城市流通网络的寄生设施，它无需诉诸城市能源网。同时，桥梁作为一个畅通无阻的公共空间发挥其功能，它不仅代表着由同济大学和哥伦比亚大学的研究小组所共享的研究兴趣，也回应了经济适用房、“进入城市的权力”以及中国当代城市景观的要求。

Infrastructure offers unprecedented opportunities which empower architects to re-engage in the affairs of the public realm. The key to the housing crisis, poverty and social mobility is still in the grip of institutions which collect and distribute capital, labor, energy and all natural resources. Contemporary infrastructural networks have formed a new artificial topography on the surface of the earth and its implications should be reexamined in terms of architectonics, anthropology, and geology.

In light of the new discursive context, Bridge Shelter represents the latest outcome of a joint research initiative which started as early as 2015. This research initiative, titled infra-architecture seeks to rearrange the way all factors of production are consumed and reproduced. Tongji University and Columbia University are running parallel design studios to test alternative ways of infrastructural solutions to a new form of urban dwelling. A series of workshops, symposia and site surveys were conducted to speculate about the future of energy, mobility, and housing.

From the perspective of infrastructural urbanism, bridges are composed of warped and folded surfaces, indicating a habitable ground which waits to be occupied. In this sense, the project imagines that bridges can be homes for migrant population and the vehicles for a new form of urbanism. By collecting energy on their own and minimizing reliance on privatized infrastructure, the community of the Bridge Shelter are parasites of a larger network of urban circulation without resorting to the urban grids. At the same time, the bridge maintains its function as an unimpeded public space. It represents not only the common research interest shared by the research team of Tongji University and Columbia University but also the pressing demands of affordable housing and the “right to the city” in the contemporary urban scene of China.