Parallel bridge crossing the Scheldt, Temse, Belgium

The competition design for the Scheldt bridges in Temse forms a couple that connects a rich landscape with urban reality. In their appearance, the bridges are both related and contradictory. Their constructional expression is based on a basic model of civil engineering: the truss. In this way, the design of the new bridge enters into dialogue with the existing one. The latter has a dramatic expression that confronts solidity and mass. In contrast, the new bridge expresses a fresh lightness, akin to promenade buildings, pergolas and the like. The spatial experience crossing the new bridge relates to the surrounding landscape and to its own internal space. By defining space, the bridge becomes a passage but also a place.
Client
Waterwegen en Zeekanaal nv, Afdeling Zeeschelde
Architects
Robbrecht en Daem architecten, Bureau d'étude Greisch
Program
Crossing of the river Scheldt
Location
Temse, Belgium
Date
2006
Status
Competition
Team
Paul Robbrecht, Hilde Daem, Johannes Robbrecht, Wim Walschap
Structural Engineering
Bureau d'étude Greisch