Simone Veil Bridge | OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture

The Simone Veil Bridge consists of a platform stretched across the River Garonne in Bordeaux
that is 549 meters in length and 44 meters wide. The bridge provides a new linear public space
for the city. It abandons any interest in style, form, and blatant structural expression in favor of
a commitment to performance and an interest in potential use by the people of Bordeaux. Cars,
modes of public transportation, and bicycles all have their own lanes, with the largest by far
dedicated to foot traffic. The width of the bridge’s platform is doubled to create neutral,
unprogrammed space that can be used for any cultural or commercial purpose, such as
markets, fairs, rallies, car club meetings, and festivals for music or wine.

Today, bridges are often narrowly evaluated in terms of their technical utility and their function
as tools for the expansion of the city and its periphery, largely driven by cars. The role of
bridges as urban spaces in themselves has been lost. The Simone Veil Bridge rejects the
current obsession with bridges as triumphant feats of engineering or aesthetic statements and
recovers their dynamic urban character, to look for an alternative definition of what a twenty-
first-century bridge could be. Its points of reference are bridges that are places not only for
circulation but also for leisure and commercial activities—including Venice’s Rialto Bridge and
incarnations of Galata Bridge across the Golden Horn in Istanbul in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. The commingling of different forms of traffic and activities creates a
contemporary boulevard that can exist in various configurations of intensity and that contributes to the metropolitan life of Bordeaux. The Simone Veil Bridge is meant to be adaptable to a range of possible future uses. It presents a literal definition for non-prescriptive place-making, and a framework for sustainability through its flexibility.

The bridge is conceived to create a unified identity for the areas on either side of the Garonne.
It connects the development of Floirac on the right bank, where sculptural and functional
objects are arranged to provide public amenities, with Bordeaux and Bègles on the left bank
through green space that is subtly woven into the urban fabric, including with the reuse of a
former highway. The bridge provides fundamental continuity for the city’s territory, through
connection but also through its performance as an urban platform in a landscape.

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Status: Complete
Client: Bordeaux Métropole
Location: Bordeaux, Bègles and Floirac, France
Site: Jean Jacques Bosc Avenue, over the Garonne
Program: Bridge: 549m long and 44m wide
120,000m2 of bridgeheads, including roads, underpass, public space and parks

Partners in charge
Rem Koolhaas
Chris van Duijn

Project Architect
Gilles Guyot

Design Team
Clément Blanchet, Margarida Amial, Henry Bardsley, Denis Bondar, Kimiko Bonneau, Solène
de Bouteiller, Alice Chen, Emily Crabb, Alban Denic, My-Linh Dinh, Paul Feeney, Camille
Filbien, Marc-Achille Filhol, Stavros Gargaretas, Romina Grillo, Hanna Jankowska, Henri
Kapynen, Min Hong Khor, Sang Woo Kim, Pierre-Jean Le Maitre, Pierre Levesque, Salma
Maaroufi, Lawrence-Olivier Mahadoo, Pierre-Jean Le Maitre, Deborah Mateo, Edward
Nicholson, Ana Otelea, Jerome Picard, Ana Reis, Maria Aller Rey, François Riollot, Claudio
Saccucci, Irgen Salianji, Kristin Schaefer, Sai Shu, Helene Sicsic, Lukasz Skalec, Saul
Smeding, Ida Stople, Jan Szymankiewicz, Xavier Travert, Nicola Vitale

COLLABORATORS
Engineers: WSP and Groupe EGIS
Landscape: Michel Desvigne Paysagiste
Lighting: Les éclaireurs

CONTRACTORS
Preliminary work: Dubreuilh, Etchart Construction, Menard
Civil engineering, equipment and superstructures: Bouygues Travaux Publics Régions
France, Pro-fond
Steel structure: Baudin Châteauneuf
Road and network: Colas, Aximum
Green space: ID Verde, Brettes Paysagiste
Lighting: SPIE City Networks