The Circle

The Circle is a footbridge intended to provide pedestrian access at the entrance of the Eko Atlantic City, a city currently under construction in Lagos, Nigeria.
The curving walkway’s design is straightforward and basic, trying to achieve simplicity and unity of form and function: a single continuous leaning circle suspended in the air on one side and buried into the earth on the other side. The slender structure is elegantly supported by a series of columns recalling the African woodlands.
Rising from the ground, the circular access ramp flies delicately above the busy roads, offering panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean, then dives slowly back down into the earth through a staircase leading the visitors to an underground sheltered passage. The Circle’s simple geometry thus creates a complex dialectic between light and darkness, lightness and heaviness, statism and dynamism.

MZ Architects is a multi-award winning architecture firm founded and lead by Marwan Zgheib since 2002. Initially based in Qatar, the firm won several architectural competitions and had the opportunity to acquire extensive experience in designing and developing high-rise buildings in the midst of the construction boom in the country.
Within a few years, MZ Architects became one of the leading architecture and consultancy groups in Qatar and in the Gulf, with a regional office in Abu Dhabi.
In 2007, MZ Architects’ headquarters were reassigned in Lebanon as an architecture and urban planning firm