Located at the Rhine Carée, one of the most significant public urban spaces of Cologne, between the two major bridges, the Hohenzollernbrücke and the Deutzer Brücke, the RheinRing represents the new center as well as the link between the two halves of Cologne inner city. The circular construction serves as an attractive pedestrian walkway directly accessible from the Altstadt, the historical city center, on the west, and in the east from the Rhine Boulevard on the opposite side, as well as offering access to the flanking Rhine bridges.

The free-floating ring above the river Rhine is a light arch construction that picks up formal references to the flanking Rhine bridges as well as to the special buildings nearby such as the LanxessArena event center, the main station building, the Museum Ludwig or the Sternwellen shade sail by Frei Otto. The geometry of the RheinRing is based on the mathematical model of a super ellipse, a flattened ellipse that mediates between the square and the round forms. The bridge above blends smoothly into the square of the Rhine Carrée and, following the same formal principle, forms wider and narrower areas, which arise from the planned utilization.

The geometrical model introduced in 1959 by the Danish writer and inventor Piet Hein describes a form that is pleasing to the eye and which he himself describes as follows: „The superellipse has the same convincing unity as the circle and ellipse, but it is less obvious and less banal, it is a relief from the straitjacket of the simpler curves of first and second powers, the straight line and the conic sections.“ The cantilever arch bridge forms a barrier-free and inviting access with its generously rounded passages to the water’s edge and to the existing Rhine bridges. Here the new pedestrian promenade joins the existing route forming a multi-layered road network. Since the support-free suspension requires no additional bridge piers in the Rhine Carrée, river traffic moving along the north-south axis remains unaffected.