Simone Veil Bridge: The Light Follows the Architecture
RAZER: How an Innovative Bridge Architecture Creates a Linear Lighting System
Rem Koolhaas, founder and partner of the globally operating Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) based in Rotterdam, realized together with his team an unconventional approach for Bordeaux to connect the two banks of the Garonne in the south of the metropolis: A bridge that creates additional, multifunctional urban space instead of iconic architecture. Opened in July 2024, the Simone-Veil Bridge is in fact a 44 metre wide public square that connects the suburb of Bègles with Floirac.
The lack of an expressive, vertically aligned bridge construction makes the appearance of the new bridge a bit unusual. This is also what led to the unusual briefing for the lighting concept for the carriageway lighting: a complete absence of high masts. Apart from relatively low columns to illuminate the areas for pedestrians and cyclists, nothing should impede the view of the panorama. The Lyon-based lighting design office Les Éclaireurs was commissioned with the detailing and implementation planning and brought ewo into play: the company had already successfully mastered a similar challenging situation at the Pont Schuman in Lyon in 2014.
In a multi-stage sampling process, ewos custom luminaire won out above all with their excellent quality of light: Their lead in criteria such as uniformity, glarefree and CoA (color over angle) was unmistakable. In the shortest possible time, the manufacturer developed the luminaire and produced the large number of around 490 luminaires. The product was later developed further into the series product RAZER.
The linear lighting system is designed for installation at a height of 0.4 to 1 m, offers high visual comfort for road users and at the same time protects the night sky, as it does not emit any light above the vertical in accordance with the Dark Sky approach. Thanks to its slim and linear design, the luminaire can be optimally integrated into structures along roads and bridges. It is also ideal for areas where the climate is harsh, for example with strong winds—or whenever unobtrusive installation of the lighting is required.
“The demands on the lighting technology in this project were enormous,” recalls Hannes Wohlgemuth, CEO of ewo, “but thanks to our experience and the expertise of our optics development department in Munich, we were able to develop a completely new special optic within the extremely demanding time frame, which also met the local normative requirements for roadway lighting.”
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