an article from the architecture guide paris:<br><br>Japan bridge<br>Already spread beyond its original boundaries, which extends business and financial district of La Defense Meanwhile westwards towards the suburb of Nanterre and from. By an extraordinary feat of planning the entire area within the boulevard circulaire is reserved for pedestrians only: all roads and railways were laid under the ground. Because however at the point where the streets behind the Grande Arche reappear at the surface, separated two adjacent office buildings are - one inside, the others outside of the boulevard circulaire-, you needed a footbridge, which should connect to each other. The Japan bridge built to this purpose is an amazing balancing act, an airy stripes over traffic flows underlying the turbulent, 15 metres below. The bridge spans 100 meters, more than seven road widths. In full speed seen by motorists, shoots the Ferrari red arrow over the artery of the taillights - an adrenaline rush of the fuels and the flotsam and Jetsam of the trade, which washes around the outskirts of Paris.<br>The steel structure rises Kurokawa's half-cylindrical tower. The main arches, welded, triangular, hollow sections, 900 mm wide, made of five parts - from the central sections and four legs. Since the facades of the building supporting the bridge are not parallel to each other, the search for an architectural coherence led to an unbalanced design: one half of the arch is longer than the other. It emerges that two elements are the same length nor the connections have the same angle. To produce this geometry as well as for the analysis of the behaviour and for making you used the help of computers.<br>Reflections on the side, acting on the glazing of the pedestrian pathway wind load as well as the necessary vertical bracing led to the design as a double arch: two bows sit together and form a stable three-dimensional structure. Arches and tendons follow parabolic curves. The separation of the parent path of the tendon enabled the Visual emphasis on the principle of the drawn bow. The crossing is held by quest, which sit on the tendons, and cleaned in the style of car washes with the help of a giant toothbrush.<br>Looking out from the bridge West, so the Emile Aillaud towers from the late sixties with their tears-shaped Windows and camouflage patterns in Pastel pink and purple promised a modernism ä la Tati's Mon Oncle, whose detailed viewing worthwhile. The sweeping overview from this place suggests a loss in however. The network of transport routes with a flurry of road-like rooms tightly over the landscape stretches: railways, pipelines, power lines, flight routes. We destroyed the sense of space for the benefit of the feeling of freedom?<br>ADDRESS behind the Grande Arche, cours Valmy, La Défense<br>OWNER Sari
CONSULTING engineer Peter Rice: RFR, supported by Ove Arup &amp; partners<br>Construction company Viry<br>Supervision SocOtCC<br>METRO and R.E.R.. la défense<br>ACCESS free<br>Architect Kisho Kurokawa 1992<br>
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