The 28 meter long Circle Bridge designed by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson is inking the area near Danisco with Christiansbro. It was officially opened in 2015.
According to the architect, ‘Cirkelbroen’ celebrates pedestrians. It’s supposed to reflect the daily life and intimacy that you find around the canal, its houseboats and sailing boats, the unique life on the ramparts.
It is now possible to bike, run or walk along the promenade all the way from Islands Brygge through the Inner Harbor (Innerhavnen) and watch the city from a very different perspective.
The footbridge consists of five interconnected circular platforms in various sizes, each with a tall mast designed to resemble ship masts with reference to the boats that sail the Copenhagen waterways. Copenhagen’s harbor was once a center of maritime activity, and Cirkelbroen is a testimony to that history.
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More than 110 tensioned wires are threaded between the base of the bridge and the tips of five poles.
“While working on the bridge, I remembered the fishing boats I saw as a child in Iceland,” said Eliasson. “Fish cutters were often moored in the harbor right next to each other, and sometimes it seemed as if you could actually walk across the harbor by going from boat to boat.”
© 2015 Olafur Eliasson
Photo: Heike Göttert 2013
About 5,000 people are crossing the bridge each day. . “But rather than offering the quickest possible passage across the canal, the bridge creates small changes in the way we observe the city and opens the way for a renegotiation of public space,” says Olafur Eliasson.
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The central platform is articulated to allow the bridge to swing back on itself, creating a nine-meter gap for passing boat traffic while smaller boats such as kayaks can pass below the elevated podiums.
I hope Cirkelbroen contributes to improving the quality of life and the development of a hospitable and inclusive city,” concludes Eliasson.
Circle Bridge in Copenhagen, written by Tor Kjolberg