The Simone Veil Bridge, designed by OMA / Rem Koolhaas and Chris van Duijn, has officially opened in Bordeaux, France. Serving as the sixth crossing over the River Garonne, the platform stretches 548 meters from either side, with a width of 44 meters. Connecting the municipalities of Floirac and Bègles and offering Bordeaux a new public space, it has been in the making for nearly a decade, and is the first bridge project in OMA’s portfolio.
The bridge introduces a new public space to the city, prioritizing functionality and future use by Bordeaux’s residents over form and structural expression. It accommodates cars, public transportation, bicycles, and pedestrians, with the most significant portion dedicated to foot traffic. The platform’s width is expanded to 28 meters of unprogrammed space, ideal for cultural activations or commercial activities like farmers’ markets, music festivals, or art fairs.
The Simone Veil Bridge seeks to challenge the conventional design of contemporary bridges, often evaluated on their technical utility and evaluated from a vehicle perspective. However, this design emphasizes the bridge as an urban space where different programming can occur. Redefining the modern bridge, the design draws inspiration from historical examples like Venice’s Rialto Bridge and the Galata Bridge in Istanbul, which served for leisure and commerce. In fact, the scheme integrates diverse traffic modes to reimagine the bridge as a contemporary boulevard for Bordeaux’s metropolitan life.
The bridge was designed to create a link for the areas on both sides of the Garonne. It connects the development of Floirac on the right bank with Bordeaux and Bègles on the left bank, incorporating natural areas into the urban fabric and reusing a former highway. Additionally, the scheme provides “continuity for the city’s territory” through its performance as an urban platform in the landscape.
This bridge is for the people, not for connoisseurs. 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 identify. On the model of bridges like the Rialto in Venice, this extra public space can be used for any purpose: popular, commercial, cultural, or political. — Rem Koolhaas, Partner, OMA
Bridges play a crucial role in shaping modern cities, having the ability to integrate the urban fabric with multifunctional public spaces. In other similar news, WilkinsonEyre has just been selected to design the new Equinox Bridge in Toronto, Canada. Similarly, following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland, construction group WeBuild, in collaboration with Carlo Ratti, has revealed an updated design proposal for a replacement bridge.
