Redesigning Zurich's city center  

The urban space around Zurich's main train station is a central transportation hub and at the same time, Zurich's calling card. Today, the urban space around the main train station has significant shortcomings – transfers between trams, buses and trains, as well as into the city, are challenging and cumbersome. There are a lot of cars. Finding your way around poses many challenges, especially for pedestrians and cyclists. The connection to the universities is not ideal. There is a lack of places to linger and access to the rivers is mostly blocked. Furthermore, Zurich's city center does not adequately represent Switzerland's largest city.  

So what is at stake is nothing less than a sustainable redesign of the center of Switzerland's largest city. This calls for new, well-thought-out solutions. The much-discussed white paper «Setting out into the urban space HB 2050» documents the results of a lengthy participatory process. It shows how Zurich wants to make its urban space diverse, climate-friendly and attractive in the future. The focus is on better organization of the transport hub, reducing through traffic, creating more open spaces, improving the urban climate and creating a clearer structure for all users. 

Exhibition as a discussion forum 

Together with officials from Zurich's Civil Engineering Office and the Center for Architecture, evoq has developed an exhibition that now makes the contents of the white paper accessible to the public. The exhibition walls feature large-scale visualizations of the vision for the city's defining locations - from Bahnhofplatz to Central, Löwenplatz and Europaplatz. Accompanying texts explain the urban planning priorities. Detailed maps show the planned development of public and private transport, cycle routes and considerations regarding the urban climate, ecology and social space. The exhibition also serves as a framework for numerous specialist events and panel discussions.

Traffic control booth as an eye-catcher 

A well-known urban object welcomes visitors to the outdoor area of the Center for Architecture. The blue and white traffic control booth stood at Zurich Central Station until 2024 and was used by the police to regulate traffic - complete with built-in heating and lighting. The booth dates back to the early post-war period and is of great historical value in terms of traffic. 

In the exhibition, it represents the past, because in the vision of Stadtraum 2050, through traffic will no longer dominate Central as it does today. Instead, the square will be reclaimed for public transport, pedestrians and as a place to linger. The traffic pulpit can thus be understood as a reminder of one of Zurich's most famous squares, which plays a special role in the vision for the main station urban space.