A BRIDGE TO BE SEINE

"Jump the Seine," Paris. Renderings: Charles Wallon for Airstudio; Photography: Sergio Grazia.

How do you get to work in the morning: drive, walk, ride, bounce? It is the intention of Parisian practice AZC to make the last option quite possible, with the concept of a bouncing bridge to span the river Seine.

Saut de Seine finally brings together the two disciplines of inflatable design and trampolining for the potentially soggy commute – or for pure leisure.

The 30 metre PVC buoys are lashed together – potentially forming a structure of any size – and each is inflated with 3,700 cubic metres of air. A trampoline mesh is stretched centrally across each unit, creating potentially the most unique of bridge crossings.

More than simple and childish fun, the design’s location offers the user views of the French capital and an affinity, particularly, with the city’s other great viewpoint: the Eiffel Tower.

“We think the superposition of these two works reveals a specific kind of architecture,” explained the design team, “one designed to install an experience of happiness in the city.”

Alas, the project has not yet been commissioned, though a prototype has been tested late last year that could yet see Parisians take temporarily, and often, to the skies.

www.zundelcristea.com

www.airstudio.fr

www.sergiograzia.fr

View from the top...

View for the clumsy.

The Prototype tested was in Spain, November 2013.