SITE:
In a region of underground mineral waters, a highway connecting Dusseldorf and Hannover.

PROGRAM:
A bridge over the highway; in the land on either side, a travelers’ garden, a respite for car-drivers on their way from one city to another. The project should be built in time for Expo 2000 in Hannover.

PROJECT:
It’s as if the water from underground has seeped up to the surface. The water announces itself; the veins of the ground show; the land is veined with water.

Five ‘rivers’ flow down the site in different directions. As a river flows, it tapers; as a river flows, it branches off into rivulets that fan out over the site. The rivers and rivulets flow in concrete V-channels that carve into the ground. The concrete of the channel folds up onto the ground and makes a pathway, next to the water; the pathway shifts, from one edge of the river to the other. One river connects, through its rivulets, to another; you walk through the site by following the water.

Some rivers, when they reach the slope at the side of the highway, are cut short; they drop off as waterfalls at the side of the road. Other rivers, when they reach a slope, continue out above the road and cross over to the other side. The V- channeled concrete trough that holds the water, within the ground, turns into a channel of glass: a glass bridge that carries the river across the road. As you walk over the bridge, water pours down the sloped glass railing on either side of you,water pours towards you; you walk on glass, you walk on water under glass.

Or you drive under water, as you drive under a bridge. You park your car off the side of the road. Where a river meets a road, the asphalt stretches, from the road to the river, making a parking lot.

Where a rivulet branches off from a river, a patch of grass in between pivots down, into the ground. You walk into a pocket park; from above, the rivers spill down in waterfalls, over the sides of the park. As the pathway ramps down, an extension of concrete, onto the grass, remains horizontal and forms a seat. In some of the pocket parks, as the land pivots down, a triangle of land within it pivots up. making the roof of a service area. The walls are 2-way mirror; at night the service area glows. There are toilets here, and a canteen; you can get information here. Outside the service area, you might have a picnic on the grass roof.