Veerle's blog

Inspiration can come from so many things around us. Some people also get inspired by buildings, personally I’m more of an interior person. This might sound a bit strange. Well it inspires me indirectly of course. Working in a nice environment for starters can do wonders.

My creative mind gets mostly triggered by colors and less by shapes etc. It’s the atmosphere in general of a place or room that does the trick. I love places with a certain tranquility and space without being too industrial or minimalistic. A certain coziness is needed. Adding a few colored walls combined with nice decoration can improve the overall feeling of coziness.

But sometimes something amazing comes along from a architect that had the power to create an inspiring piece of work. Imagine for a moment that you get the assignment to create a huge good-looking bridge. Ok, it is totally not my area and to me it seems like an impossible task to perform but as you’ll read below there are people out there that have those talents.

Recently the Millau Viaduct opened up in France and was inaugurated by the French President Jacques Chirac. The construction started in 2001 but the planning goes as far back as 1993. This bridge is Located in southern France and connects the motorway from Paris to Barcelona at the point where it is interrupted by the River Tarn, which runs through a wide gorge between two plateaus.

The beauty of this bridge is that it makes a minimum intervention in the landscape and I must say I’m impressed by its architecture. It was designed by Foster and partners. It’s the highest bridge in the world measuring at 343 meters (1125.33 ft). It consists of 27 000 cubic meters of concrete, 19 000 tons of concrete-reinforcing steel, and 5000 tonnes of reinforcing steel for cables and coverings were required for its construction. The Millau Viaduct has been designed to withstand the most extreme seismic and meteorological conditions and faultless operation being guaranteed for at least 120 years.