There will soon be a new crossing point on the Somme at Amiens. A new footbridge, under construction since autumn 2019, is about to be completed between rue de Verdun and the towpath that runs along the hortillonnages. Opening scheduled for the end of April, inauguration on May 5. But as the structure takes shape, its design questions.
The overall appearance already, in a very modern style that contrasts with the decor, between green banks and traditional houses. “It’s ugly”, asserts a walker. “Scrap that we put in a natural place, we are on the hortillonnages…“.”In such a magnificent and preserved setting, a little old, I think it’s too modern, and that’s a shame. I think it breaks the landscape a bitand“, completes another walker.
A modern bias and very contrasting opinions
“Maybe it’s the novelty that makes us react this way, maybe we’ll get used to over time thinking that why not, that it wasn’t such a bad idea“, tempers his friend. “But the gray might be a little too bold“.
Others wear a more benevolent look : “The aesthetics are wonderful. No really, it’s a great achievement.“, believes Brigitte, whose house on the towpath directly overlooks the footbridge. Above all, she would like bollards to be placed at the entrance to the path to allow only local residents’ cars to pass. “It’s modern, it’s not bad, it’s design“, says a passer-by.
The work objective that is both resistant and thin
Mathieu Devrelle, operations manager for Vallée Idéale Développement, the company in charge of the project, provides an initial explanation: “We wanted the thinnest footbridge possible, so we took the option of setting up a footbridge with a steel metal box which allows us to have the most resistant possible and the most light aesthetically possible“.
A wooden structure for example, certainly more in tune with the landscape, would have posed some problems according to him: “The structure would have been much thicker, and at the level of the coating it is not something very opportune. Wood can resist bad weather unlike concrete where we have something quite interesting, and which always allows to have a fine and resistant work“.
Amazing hippos
On the design side, another element raises questions: on the lifts, installed on both sides of the Somme for people with reduced mobility, tapered cladding represents hippos grazing peacefully, flown over by a discreet hot-air balloon. animals though not very typical of the banks of the Somme.
Here too the choice leaves some passers-by doubtful. Florence also has trouble recognizing critters: “What is a horse? No, a rhinoceros… ah! A hippopotamus perhaps? Yes it’s curious“.”It is certain that in Picardy, you don’t see a hippo every day“, laughs the first walker.
A tribute to Jules Verne
Others take things philosophically like Christmas: “With global warming, maybe in a few years we will see crocodiles in the Somme, who knows? And exotic animals… We’ll be less out of place that way!“
Here again there is an explanation for this surprising choice at first sight: “It is above all an image reminiscent of the world of Jules Verne. Travel, weeks in a balloon…”, explains Mathieu Devrelle. A more evocative idea had first been considered “Initially we had thought of an octopus or something like that. But it could be redundant with what we could already find in Amiens, so we opted for a more general design that recalls the travels of Jules Verne as a whole. “