An ecological footbridge to slow down
Campus UNIL © EPFL / A. Herzog
The modulart.ch platform, an online magazine dedicated to modular architecture, devotes a report to the fifth edition of the "Sustainable is beautiful" student competition, which focused on the theme of ecological footbridges, in the context of the renaturation of the Chamberonne River on the site of the University of Lausanne (UNIL).
In close collaboration with Entreprise de Correction Fluviale de la Chamberonne and with the support of the Vaud chapter of the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA), the Laboratory for Sustainable Architecture and Technologies (LAST) organized this competition for ideas, open to students of the EPFL's Architecture and Civil Engineering Sections. "From the outset, this competition was designed to stimulate students' imagination and creativity around the issues of ecological transition and climate emergency, from an architectural perspective of sufficiency and careful use of material and economic resources", emphasizes Prof. Emmanuel Rey, president of the jury
More specifically, it was a question of anticipating the current project to rewild a river running through the university campus. Participants were asked to design two new footbridges for sustainable mobility, capable of responding to future flood variations in a freed and rewilded river, whose width could vary between 4 and 40 meters depending on the untimely dynamics of future floods.
The winning project, entitled "Chassé Croisé" and proposed by the team formed by Solène Guisan, Vincent Digneaux and Vincent Kastl, is sufficient, modular through the combination of wood and metal, and evolutive in terms of its design. With a real efficiency and optimal use of resources, it offers a wide range of uses and an interesting potential for re-use. The bridge's function as a passageway is broadened by the articulation of pontoons designed as crossing segments, which are extended at the ends by small belvederes, inviting visitors to rest and contemplate the landscape. The footbridge thus becomes an ecological structure, a crossing device, and a living space.