A river in the city is a breath of fresh air, a landmark, a landscape, a place to live, a driver of development… Aware of the value of this heritage, in 2017 the City of Tournai undertook an ambitious project to enhance the banks of the Scheldt. As part of this project, it decided to replace the Arche footbridge, which connects the two working-class neighbourhoods of Saint-Jean and Saint-Piat in the south of the city. The existing footbridge no longer meets current mobility needs.

The City of Tournai and the Wallonia Public Service (SPW), which owns the footbridge, therefore launched a competition with the support of the Architecture Unit of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. In order to find out what citizens wanted, the City also commissioned City Tools to organise a participatory process ahead of the competition.