Bridges are often considered to belong to the realm of the engineer rather than that of the architect. But the architecture of infrastructure has a powerful impact on the environment and the Millau Viaduct, designed in close collaboration with structural engineers, illustrates how the architect can play an integral role in the design of bridges. It follows the Millennium Bridge over the River Thames, in expressing a fascination with the relationships between function, technology and aesthetics in a graceful structural form.

Located in southern France, when it is completed the bridge will connect the motorway networks of France and Spain, opening up a direct route from Paris to Barcelona. The bridge crosses the River Tarn, which runs through a spectacular gorge between two high plateaux. Interestingly, alternative readings of the topography suggested two possible structural approaches: to celebrate the act of crossing the river or to articulate the challenge of spanning the 2.46 kilometres from one plateau to the other in the most economical manner. Although historically the river was the geological generator of the landscape, it is very narrow at this point, and so it was the second reading that suggested the most appropriate structural solution.

A cable-stayed, masted structure, the bridge is delicate, transparent, has the optimum span between columns. Each of its sections spans 342 metres and its columns range in height from 75 metres to 245 metres (equivalent to the height of the Eiffel Tower), with the masts rising a further 90 metres above the road deck. To accommodate the expansion and contraction of the concrete deck, each column splits into two thinner, more flexible columns below the roadway, forming an A-frame above deck level. The tapered form of the columns both expresses their structural loads and minimises their profile in elevation. The bridge not only has a dramatic silhouette, but crucially, it also makes the minimum intervention in the landscape. Lit at night, it will trace a slender ribbon of light across the valley.

轉載自Forster and partners
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一.高樓

人們。
從踮起腳尖到巴別塔的想像
到堆砌到兩座互看且睥睨下方的世貿雙塔，便
滿足了嗎？
不！
要有海上極盡奢華的帆船、城市中看向天際的千禧巨門…
倚靠經濟崛起的諸國，在一片喧嘩中步入類資本主義的價值世界，便開始權利與知識扭曲成高聳入雲端的樣子。後現在社學結構中，傳統定義內的權利與商業主義已經交溝，人們被所有滲透而成為網路模型中一些沒有濾過的節點。技術效能的提昇以及人力資源無形的集中與滲透性造成我們所稱呼的”進步”是如此驚天動地而來，歷史的縮短、瞬時間之膚淺爆炸的延伸…連同幾百座捉天的高樓高塔
彷彿無聲無息的全然出現。
我們還有滿足？
還有重大嗎？

二.跨距

也許正是這微小肉體的掙扎。
姑且不討論光子暗子的微觀跨距追究，
從「跨越那條河吧！」到
「駛到海的盡頭吧！」然後
「有一天能夠離開銀河系。」
神性從人性而來，什麼時候翻個筋斗就是十萬八千里？
也許人性之所以會在自我價值裡冠稱上偉大的封號是因為慾望的無度，
其實也僅僅是慾望的無度而已。

空境與無境是不會造就充滿高樓的極樂世界，
李祖原學佛的還蓋出中台禪寺那種鬼東西？

三.雲頂之橋

「你彷彿走於雲端，
彷彿走於雲端…」

諾曼福斯特的作品
法國南部，也許是為了橫越那些冰蝕谷地形
可以說絕美，具有理性宏偉之畏懼以及單純
行體節構上的痴醉。
唉
神話總要崩毀，
但絕對有人會再建立。