France’s River Garonne has a new bridge in the southwestern port city of Bordeaux. Designed by Dutch architects OMA, the project aimed to create not just a way of getting across the water but a space to bring the public together. The latest river crossing is aptly named the Simone Veil Bridge.
A survivor of Nazi concentration camps, Simone Veil’s childhood and traumatic experiences during the Second World War sowed the seeds of her commitment to a unified Europe, a cause she would champion for the rest of her life. She was the leader of the first directly elected European Parliament and the first woman to head any EU institution. For her work and commitment to the EU, she won the Charlemagne Prize, the award honouring a person’s contributions to European unity.
Neutral, unprogrammed space
The bridge, Bordeaux’s eighth, spans the Garonne between the west bank suburb of Bègles and Floirac on the east bank, home to the Arkéa Arena. At 549 metres long and 44 metres across, the structure boasts car, public transport and cycle lanes, but its most unusual feature is formed by 15,000 square metres of what OMA describes as “neutral, unprogrammed space” anticipated to host fairs, festivals and markets.
A new plaza filled with trees links the bridge to the event venue, effectively making the extra-wide pedestrian area of the bridge an extension of the public space where the communities on either side can come together.
Appearing long, low-slung above the water on repeating sets of three, square pillars, and rather plain in raw concrete, the bridge “is for the people, not for connoisseurs,” architect and OMA founder Rem Koolhaas said. “Rather than concentrating on form, the project focuses on performance. Instead of spending its budget on structural gymnastics, it doubles the width with a public space to serve and connect the two adjoining communities that so far have not developed a strong identity,” he continued.
“Anti-iconic design”
However, that lack of “structural gymnastics” has drawn criticism from some quarters, with online commenters on design site Dezeen remarking on the design’s simplicity. “Uglier than a normal bridge and no more inviting to be on than any blank piece of concrete,” said one. “You can use any bridge or street as an urban space (which of course many cities do with pedestrian-only streets). There’s not even one bench or shaded area here.”
Another dubbed the bridge “A triumph of functionalist banality” and a third derided the concept of “unprogrammed space” as a “dereliction” of architectural duty.
Others see the neutral offering more as “a gift” to the city to use for its own purposes and OMA partner Van Duijn has hit back at detractors, saying the design “is like a stage but without the theatre,” and noting: “In an era of icons and landmarks, it is very special that the city of Bordeaux decided to build this anti-iconic design.”
