Crossings

BOULEVARD LEON BUREAU
THE ABANDONMENT OF THE STRAIGHT LINE

Boulevard Léon-Bureau crosses the island of Nantes on a North/South axis, separating the district from the creation of the Parc des Chantiers. In this metamorphosed sector, the Société d’Aménagement de la Métropole Ouest-Atlantique is thinking about improving car-bicycle-pedestrian friendliness and is getting closer to Voyage à Nantes in order to associate an artist with it. Instead of the straight and regulatory crossing, Aurélien Bory prefers the more poetic idea of ​​cross roads and imagines many lines with generous curves that connect the two banks of the boulevard by crossing on four vast plateaus. They draw a lively and chaotic flow, far from the rectilinear aspect of the usual pedestrian crossings. Departing from the signaling paradigm, these curves extend over the entire width of the plateaus and constitute an invitation to cross by slowing down the flow of traffic. This invitation is also a game: to follow a curved line is to renounce the Euclidean axiom of the shortest path. It is a childhood reminiscence, that of trying to walk only on the white stripes. The abandonment of the straight line is not the only characteristic of pedestrian crossings but the common thread of the whole proposal. No straight axis on this boulevard, the road markings are only slight windings. No need to look for the shortest path, there is none!

INFORMATIONS

Creation July 2016,

Boulevard Léon Bureau – Ile de Nantes

A COMMISSION FOR Le Voyage à Nantes

carried out at the request of the Société d’Aménagement de la Métropole Ouest-Atlantique – SAMOA,

as part of the reconfiguration of Boulevard Léon Bureau on the Île de Nantes.