Bath Quays Bridge
The city of Bath is built around water. Its development since ancient times is rooted in the presence of water, of which the river Avon is the symbol. The river is the matrix of the city, it defines the geography; the presence of water constitutes a natural urbanity which is at the origin of the city’s development. Between history and modernity, the footbridge will be the symbol of this attention to the geography, to the qualities of its environment and to the presence of its built history.
The historic town is transformed today as it opens to the river. We wish to accompany this transformation by creating a gentle tie, gentle by the nature of the connections that it proposes, gentle by the choice of an orthogonal alignment to the river banks, extended by an elongated curve to connect with the future development, gentle by the topography of the proposed path. The structure of the footbridge adapts to the scheme of stresses while it accompanies the pedestrian pathway, delicate, efficient and variable. The steel structure varies, and its variation expresses the attention to a form of frugality, of distinction in the landscape, a variation of curves which accompanies the curves of the topography to express a delicate fabric, contemporary, but rooted in the historical tradition of the city of Bath.
I feel a great emotion to imagine a contemporary bridge, expression of its time, in the heart of this historical city.
I feel a great emotion to still be in passion with the project, independently of its scale but sensitive to the transformation it proposes.