Claude Bernard overpass
CLAUDE BERNARD OVERPASS
Dvvd
YEAR
2015
LOCATION
Paris, France
TYPE
Transport + Infrastructure › Bridge
Simple as a brushstroke, slender in form, the Claude Bernard overpass elegantly spans the boulevard Périphérique between Aubervilliers and Paris.
This arched timber structure, nearly 100 metres in length, connects the Parc du Millénaire to the Claude Bernard urban development zone, the very embodiment of an emblematic site.
In this rapidly-changing district, a flagship for development policy in the north-east of the Ile-de-France, office blocks and residential buildings rub shoulders with a cinema, a nursing home, a nursery, a school, sports facilities, a multi-mode transport hub (incorporating the RER E rapid transit line, four bus routes, and routes 3 and T8 on the tram system), a park and a shopping centre.
This developmental diversity has dictated a fresh approach to the consideration of urban density, multi-functionality and compactness, further accentuated by an overall environmental approach which is consistent with the objectives of the climate action plan of the City of Paris.
One change leads to another: a change in the status of the city ring road, now conceived as an urban boulevard.
The scale of this challenge was therefore to support this local dynamic through the provision of an overpass.
More than just a bridging structure, this needed to be a unifying and symbolic feature. This brief has been perfectly realized by the architects at the DVVD architecture, design and engineering agency.
