Behind the 77 tracks

Hamburg has HafenCity, London has Canary Wharf, and Paris has La Défense. For a week now, Zurich has also joined the ranks of cities setting trends in urban redevelopment. Last Thursday, the Europaallee was opened behind Zurich’s main train station. Meta Design, the branding and corporate identity agency, developed the brand strategy, visual identity, and communications for the SBB’s new prestige project.

«A particular challenge here was that it wasn’t just about communicating a wide variety of offerings, but rather about the Europaallee brand as a whole,» says André Stauffer, Creative Director at Meta Design. Currently, the posters announcing the opening of Europaallee with a massive display are impossible to miss throughout the city of Zurich.

Meta Design has been working with SBB on this project since December 2011. Previously, the Zurich-based branding agency had carried out other assignments for the railway’s umbrella brand. This led to the request: For SBB’s largest real estate development project in Switzerland, a strategy was to be developed for positioning and marketing the Europaallee brand.

SBB plans to market its properties on the site of the large-scale development behind the Sihlpost on its own. In total, SBB is currently working on nearly 80 development projects throughout Switzerland. The Europaallee is the largest of these and is intended to serve as a flagship project in terms of brand strategy.

Subbrands as a Guide

Following the opening of Construction Site A on September 20—after nearly four years of construction—seven additional sections of Europaallee will be put into service over the next eight years. In 2013, UBS will move into the building behind the existing University of Teacher Education. In 2015, Sihlpost will move into a new building further west. In 2016, a design hotel will open.

Construction Site A, which has now opened, is home to the campus of the University of Education, which is already being used by 2,500 students as of the start of this semester. For the general public, the newly opened Europaallee Passage features 15 stores, primarily specializing in outdoor and sports gear. For example, visitors can discover a seven-meter-high transparent climbing wall here at the Transa Store.

MetaDesign’s brief was that the Europaallee brand should be perceived as independent, rather than directly associated with SBB. The name «Europaallee» had already been decided upon. “A strong umbrella brand ensures synergies in the development and establishment of this ambitious and unique project,” explains strategist Lukas Eiselin. Subbrands such as the Europaallee-Passage are used strategically to provide visitors and residents with geographical orientation and to address specific themes. As additional construction sites open, new subbrands will be introduced in a targeted manner.

In developing the brand identity, MetaDesign drew on the uniqueness of the diverse connections that Europaallee represents: for example, the connection between the two distinct city districts, District 1 and District 4. But even within this area, you’ll find everything you need—from retail spaces to educational institutions, restaurants, a hotel, apartments, and even a retirement community.

MetaDesign has therefore framed this urban «microcosm» within a visually distinct «bracket» that unites this diversity: two lines that are simultaneously perceived as a graphic symbol for an avenue. «The double row of trees is the graphic representation of an avenue. Through this simplification, it has become two parallel lines,» explains André Stauffer, who was responsible for the design. To promote the opening and the new name, the city of Zurich used not only numerous posters but also hanging signs in trains and trams, as well as advertisements.

Andreas Panzeri