A Bridge Over Troubled Water

An Architectural Competition

BRIEF

As part of our 2017/18 research theme discussing the infrastructural implications of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, the school has launched an international architecture competition for a fixed link connecting France with the UK.

During the Anglo-French summit that took place on 18 January 2018, British Foreign Secretary proposed the idea of a 22 mile (35km) bridge linking the two nations.

The ‘Boris Bridge’ has been widely criticised, with both the importance of the Channel (la Manche) as a shipping lane of global importance, as well as Johnson’s history of flamboyant vanity projects (most notably the London Garden Bridge).

Within the context of the UK’s departure from the EU in March 2019, can a potential link between the island and continental Europe usher in a new era of cross-channel co-operation and free-trade, or is it simply another grand projet folly to divert from the real and perhaps insurmountable issues involved in untangling the UK from decades of EU integration.