The market footbridge | Explorations Architecture

The market footbridge is one of the four crossing of the railway network that passes through the town of Maisons-Laffitte, in the north-west of Paris. It is a crucial inter-city link because it is the only crossing dedicated to pedestrians and cycles.
Its construction allowed to rethink the overall development of the market place thereby to create a more attractive living space and impove the functioning of the market.
The footbridge is completely made of steel shells and consists of two staircases in the direct continuity with the main span, which create a fluid and elegant outline by means of a "Z" in-plane shape. The lifts, prismatic objets with dark tinted glass panels, are designed as counterpoints in the composition, contrasting with the bright main structure.
The staircases and the deck form a continuous assembly realized in smooth "U" shape steel box shells. These very slender shells are supported on both sides of the railway tracks by pinned hollow round columns over a free span of 42 m.

Length 65 m