Architecture

Switzerland's "smallest city" boasts a high-quality ambience and urban stylishness.

The design for "The Circle" emerged from a three-stage architectural competition that attracted over 90 top-class entries. The winning project bears the very appropriate name "Divers(c)ity". Created by Japanese architectural firm Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop, the design promises to become a cornerstone of the architectural landscape around Zurich Airport.

Externally, the building relates well to the large formats of the existing airport. Once inside, it conveys an inner city experience on a smaller scale – with a high level of urbane ambient quality. Broken down into small sections, the inner city atmosphere is testimony to typical Swiss reserve.

A variety of roadways, squares and alleyways snake rhythmically along the entire length of the ground floor, giving visitors access on different levels to diverse new spaces.

A glass roof provides a clear view of the sky and gives the building additional ambient quality. Together, these elements thus create a varied interplay of individual and merged units that ideally combine openness and discretion.

The design allows great flexibility in the use of the buildings and provides a framework for vibrant diversity that will attract visitors and arouse curiosity. The individual tenants will also have an eye-catching presence with their own address in one of the seven modules.

The originality of the architecture – with clear attributes, such as "Swiss", "cosmopolitan" and "surprising" – gives "The Circle" a visionary, future-proof look.

"I am honoured to have won what is no doubt the most important European competition of the decade. "The Circle" is poised to become an enormous success."

Riken Yamamoto, Architect