• PROJECT
    Passerelle Marcelle Henry
  • LOCATION
    ZAC Clichy-Batignolles, Paris 17ème
  • CLIENT
    Ville de Paris
  • PROJECT MANAGEMENT
    Marc Mimram Architecture et Ingénierie
  • DATES
    2013 – 2018
  • AREA
    Main span of 116 meters - Width of 6 meters
  • COST
    5,5 M€
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The Marcelle Henry Footbridge in the Clichy Batignolles ZAC (Development Zone) provides a link to Rue Saussure so as to anchor the urban project in the Clichy Batignolles district within the fabric of the city of Paris, extending over the encircling railway lines spreading out from the Gare Saint Lazare. The task was not simple since it had not only to take account of the usage of the public space and the site for anchoring the new urban development, but also had to consider what was near and what was in the distance—the daily usage and the landscape from the stream of railway lines over which the footbridge runs and which it echoes.

 The bridge, composed of double curvature beams, their curves varying from one side to the other, incorporates within itself elements of balance, rest, and contemplation. Here, public space and structure are integrated in the surface geometry of the project. The sides of the wide walkway, opening up into a series of long curves, form alcoves on either side.

The two sides of the bridge are asymmetric and interlinking, delicate then open, curved then lightened, demonstrating the careful attention paid to the public space and the siting of the structure. The link becomes a place.

Delicate and weightless, the bridge is open to the sky, the mesh of its surrounds arching up to allow light to filter through. The play of light passing through the mesh onto the walkway—with its east-west orientation—varies according to the time of day, changing our view of the infrastructure.