Rethinking What an Urban Bridge Can Do
The Pont Simone-Veil in Bordeaux by OMA is more than a conduit for traffic — it creates new public spaces for once-separate communities to come together.
Bordeaux's new Simone Veil Bridge opened this July.
Photographer: Clement GuillaumeA new structure recently opened in Bordeaux could provide an interesting blueprint for the future of the urban bridge.
The Pont Simone-Veil, spanning the River Garonne in France’s fifth-largest city, doesn’t look like much at first glance. Designed by the architecture studio OMA, co-founded by Rem Koolhaas, it’s a broad span without notably eye-catching design features beyond its width — a far cry from some of the firm’s flashier extravaganzas, such as Beijing’s CCTV Headquarters or the De Rotterdam building. The bridge nonetheless breaks notable new ground in function, if not in form.