Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven Architects were inspired by the bridge type featured in the 1995 romantic movie The Bridges of Madison County with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood. The archetypal typology of the 19th-century ‘covered bridges’ found in east coast rural American found their form in the shape of a stable so that horses would cross ‘voluntarily’ and not take fright at the wild water or thundering locomotives below.
This Dutch reinterpretation connects a network of paths across a new railway, for walkers, cyclists and horse riders in a recreational area of Hoek van Holland. The architects designed this new bridge as a hybrid construction, comprising an inflected concrete road and a preserved timber superstructure of four cross-laminated portal frames.
To heighten the abstract effect, the timber façade was finished with graphite paint and the saddleback roof covered with patinated zinc. The tactile materials selected give the bridge a subtle sparkle in the landscape according to the position of the sun.
In terms of assembly, the roof, portal frames, and façade sections were all prefabricated and then assembled at the base of the embankment so that the metro line could continue to operate throughout the construction period. The superstructure was placed over the road surface in one go by specialist movers.
