A bridge, a link, a new horizon – Liberation

From April 3 to 6, 2025 in Bordeaux, The quartus endowment fund for architecture Organizes a series of urban meetings, workshops and explorations on how to design and live in cities. An event that Release is a partner.

In Bordeaux, city ​​marked by the separation between its two banksthe new crossing made thanks to the Simone-Veil bridge meets the historic need to connect Bègles to Floirac. These two municipalities have been waiting for a direct connection for years to imagine a future in common. Designed as a large platform, the new bridge offers a public space floating above the river, halfway between the right and left banks. This strategic position creates a junction point in the metropolis and a benchmark in the metropolitan landscape.

The success of the corajoud quays guided our reflection – with OMA, an architect with the design. This space stretched towards the appreciated horizon of the Bordeaux for its events and its relationship to water, has proven that a discreet architecture allows uses to express themselves. The right bank, in the landscape designed by Michel Desvigneconstitutes the landscaping against the arrangements of the left bank. The Simone-Veil bridge is part of the dialogue between the two projects watching and transforming the edges of Garonne.

In the history of infrastructure which connect the two banks, this bridge forms the eighth chapter. Seven books have shaped the city, each marking the eras and privileged modes of transport. The stone bridge (1,821) designed for pedestrians and carriages, the Eiffel Passerelle (1,860) dedicated to the rail network; The Saint-Jean (1,965), Aquitaine (1,967) and François Mitterrand (1,993) bridges (1,993), mainly drawn for car traffic, the SNCF bridge (2,008) which carries the recent high speed line, and finally the Chaban-Delmas bridge (2,013) which allows both the road crossing and the passage of large ships.

The Simone-Veil bridge completes this family with a new and complementary identity: place human experience at the heart of the design. It is a tool of mobility, but above all a place of life with multiple uses where one can stop, observe, exchange. It is both a place of passage and a destination space.

The concept of « capable plaque » results in a generous width and a simple spatial organization. Technical reservations provided for in the structure will add equipment according to the evolution of needs. The Simone Veil bridge was sized to support different configurations of mobility and public use. Its infrastructure is part of a long -term urban transformation process. It offers possibilities: cultural events, temporary markets, exhibitions, artistic performances, sports meetings, or appropriations by citizens. To users, the care of inventing practices that we have not imagined. The bridge evolves, adapts and reinvents itself with the city and its inhabitants.

By celebrating the ordinary, this project praises functional simplicity. The crossing becomes the symbol of the metropolis of tomorrow: a metropolis which creates places for all, capable of evolving over time, thought to last without becoming obsolete. An invitation: cross, live, reinvent.