PARIS IN THE SPRINGNESS: A TRAMPOLINE BRIDGE TO CROSS THE SEINE

One reason why Paris is one of our favorite cities, is the city’s romance felt so deeply when traversing some of the nearly 40 bridges that cross the River Seine. Yet when ArchTriumph launched a design competition for a new, contemporary River Seine bridge, architects at the Paris design studio Atelier Zündel & Cristea (AZC) responded with a design not only beautiful, but joyful as well. “We propose, now, a distinctive urban feature: an inflatable bridge equipped with giant trampolines, dedicated to the joyful release from gravity as one bounces above the river.” But rather than take visitors away from the experience that is Paris, the Saut de Seine (“Jump the Seine”) bridge would connect them to it. As the AZC website states, the bridge, “Allows every visitor a novel view of Paris from his or her own unique spatial position: upright and leaping, upside down and tumbling, gliding above like a circus performer.” Saut de Seine took third place in the competition, but it’s leapt right to the top of the list of bridges we’d love to cross.

While the bridge remains a concept for now, this video will give you a sense of its style. Read more about the project at AZC.