Design: John Horton / WebbYates
Fabrication & Installation : John Horton D&M
Location: South of France
Client: Private
Located in a beautiful and remote part of Provence, this footbridge connects two previously divided parts of the same property, providing access to land that otherwise required a protracted 30 minute drive to reach.
Working in collaboration with WebbYates, our challenge was to provide a low impact, cost effective design which not only satisfied all of the bridge’s practical and structural requirements, but one that would also quite harmoniously fit its untouched natural setting. Having explored and rejected various design options, the final design took its initial inspiration from the simple round bottomed wicker Basket, a traditional, hand crafted, organic vessel designed to safely hold and transport its contents from A to B, its diagonally woven construction would not only suit us from a structural point of view, but would also, by varying the angle at which the bars cross each other would allow us to achieve the sensual, rounded enveloping perimeter shape we were hoping to achieve.
Fundamental to the overall design and construction of the bridge, would be the method of its installation. The sites remote and inaccessible location ruled out the use of any kind of heavy lifting equipment, meaning, the bridge would have to be installed by hand. Our solution was to split the bridge into 15 equal and relatively light-weight sections, which could be transported to the South of France on a single 45ft long truck. From the site’s south bank, each section could then be hauled across the river and secured into place one-by-one via a temporary zip wire system.
