• PROJECT
    Passerelle des deux rives
  • LOCATION
    Sur le Rhin entre Strasbourg et Kehl
  • CLIENT
    Ville de Kehl
  • PROJECT MANAGEMENT
    Marc Mimram Architecture et Ingénierie
  • DATES
    2000 – 2004
  • SURFACE
    Portée de 180 mètres - Longueur passerelle haute de 400 mètres - Arc de 265 mètres
  • COST
    12,8 M €
  • Download the project

The footbridge over the Rhine springs entirely from the geographic and geometric logic of the gardens on either side of the river.

Rather than regarding the river as a gap to be crossed in some abstract way, it is what molds the geography that gives the place form, life, and meaning. The project set out to provide a meeting point between these two anchoring points of the riverbanks, then extending above the embankment along the circular walkway. The bridge is designed as a double bridge, offering a variety of ways of crossing and a meeting point in the middle of the river.

Here geography prevails over history and the public space passing above the old frontier makes a visual link between the shared territory between the Black Forest and the Vosges. The bridge is supported by cables, allowing the intersecting decks— one a horizontal curve, the other a vertical curve—to be detached from the main supporting structure.

In a landscape that opens up to the sky, the footbridge presents slim structural lines that intersect to offer a multiplicity of paths and meeting points with the Rhine. With its multiplicity of possible routes and the lightness of its web-like structure, the footbridge pays tribute to the river that runs beneath it, offering a timeless symbol of a delicately balanced meeting between nations.