The collaboration between OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen and the engineers at Bollinger Grohmann has resulted in Tondo in Brussels, a stunningly striking piece of architecture. Spanning the distance between the House of Parliamentarians and the Forum Building, this footbridge was designed to connect the two buildings and bridge the difference in height. The result is a curious structure, a Brussels ‘Bridge of Sighs’ that appears to float above Leuvenseweg.

In 1989, the French architect Jean Nouvel described his tower for La Défense in Paris as ‘L’esthétique d’une double disparition’. His – incidentally, never-realised – ‘tour sans fins’ played on the idea of vanishing architecture. The black granite plinth gave way to a body initially made of polished aluminium or stainless steel, culminating in a reflective, tinted, screen-printed and, finally, clear glass top. With this tower, Nouvel explored his fascination with reality and hyperreality; a fascination that would lead, five years later, to the exceptionally striking Fondation Cartier. Tondo, the footbridge recently completed by OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen on Leuvenseweg in Brussels, appears to owe a debt to this architectural exploration, yet radicalises its proposition and form.