If you can’t beat them, join them

Zalige Bridge in Nijmegen

Living with the water

The Dutch know how to live with water. The Zalige Bridge in Nijmegen by NEXT archi­tects in coope­ra­rion with H+N+S Land­scape Archi­tects is the proof. The bridge is slowly submer­ging under the rising water and is reachable only through step­ping stones. It becomes the ulti­mate place to expe­ri­ence high water.

In the Dutch city of Nijmegen, where the bridge is located, water levels of 11,50 m NAP+ are being measured. Such height was reached only once in the last 15 years. In the past this would have been a threat, but now the high water becomes an attrac­tion. People walk over the bridge and through the river park to see and expe­ri­ence the high water.

A bypass for the river

Zalige Bridge is part of “Room for the River”, a nation-wide project initiated by the Ministry of Infra­struc­ture and the Envi­ron­ment in coope­ra­tion with provinces and muni­ci­pa­li­ties that prevents floo­ding by giving more room to the rivers. Room for the river Waal is the largest project within the national programme and involved relo­ca­ting the dike and cons­truc­ting an ancil­lary channel in the flood plains: a bypass for the river.

Zalige Bridge was completed in March 2016. Michel Schrei­ne­ma­chers, partner at NEXT archi­tects, empha­sises the rela­tion between bridge and land­scape: “This bridge is build on the flood­plains. This fact was used to design a bridge that strongly connects and inter­acts with the river land­scape as a path over the water.”

Normally, the river has an average height of 7 m NAP+ and the bridge stands high above the water. The bridge landings and the step­ping stones have been desi­gned to be perfectly aligned with the profile of the land­scape. When water levels rise, some parts of the bridge will submerge, chan­ging its appearance and use. “It makes people expe­ri­ence the chan­ging water levels” says Schrei­ne­ma­chers.

Architect

NEXT archi­tects
Paul van Vlis­sin­gen­straat 2a
NL — 1096 BK Amsterdam

Team

Michel Schrei­ne­ma­chers, Marijn Schenk, Bart Reuser, Jurriaan Hiller­ström, Luuc Sonke, Maarten Vermeulen, Inge­borg Kuij­laars

Client

Muni­ci­pa­lity of Nijmegen

Construction company

I‑Lent (Dura Vermeer Divisie Infra BV en Ploegam BV)

Photographs

© NEXT archi­tects / Photo­graphs: Jan Daanen
© NEXT archi­tects / Photo­graphs: Rutger Hollander
© NEXT archi­tects / Photo­graphs: Jeroen Bosch
© NEXT archi­tects / Photo­graphs: Jennie Burgers

Author

NEXT archi­tects 

Address

Zali­ge­brug
NL — 6541 AH Nijmegen

Arieal view

Thank you, Google!

Opening

2016

Construction costs

€4,700.000

No high water / high water

Section

High water becomes an attraction

In January 2018 the Zalige Bridge proved itself for the first time. Water levels rose up to the highest point in 15 years. The high water became an attrac­tion, with the bridge as the ulti­mate place to expe­ri­ence the event. Throug­hout the year, the river Waal has an average height of 7 m +NAP and the bridge stands high above the water. When the river reached 10,5 m +NAP, the bridge landings submerged and the step­ping stones became the only inter­mit­tent path giving access to the bridge. People walked over the bridge and through the river park to see and expe­ri­ence the high water. When the step­ping stones got under water, the bridge became inac­ces­sible.

We have to tell more stories

“Aware­ness for water issues is still low unfort­u­na­tely” told Henk Ovink, first Special Envoy for Inter­na­tional Water Affairs for the Kingdom of the Nether­lands. “This is why we have to tell more stories to make people under­stand how important the water issue is.” This is exactly what Zalige Bridge does: this bridge by NEXT empha­sizes the dynamic character of water by letting people see and expe­ri­ence the chan­ging river land­scape. The atten­tion and enthu­siasm for the high water shows how we manage to live with water in the Nether­lands, not by restrai­ning it, but by giving it enough space. If you can’t beat them, join them.

Images

Video

<iframe src=“https://player.vimeo.com/video/252362798” width=“640” height=“360” frameborder=“0” webki­tal­lowfull­screen mozal­lowfull­screen allowfullscreen></iframe><!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –><p><a href=“https://vimeo.com/252362798”>Zalige bridge by NEXT architects</a> from <a href=“https://vimeo.com/nextarchitects”>nextarchitects</a> on <a href=“https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
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