Flexity Zürich, Product Investment, Design Preis Schweiz 21
Nominee | Product Design | 2021

Flexity Zürich

Flexity Zurich is the new low-floor streetcar generation of the Zurich Transport Authority (VBZ), which has been gradually put into operation since 2020. It was built on the basis of the Flexity 2 platform from the manufacturer Alstom (formerly Bombardier). Milani Design & consulting is responsible for the exterior appearance and interior design of the Zurich Flexity version. In the briefing for the design, VBZ as the customer explicitly requested a design reference to the well-known Zurich streetcar shelters of the 1930s. The new streetcar was to "calmly blend into the urban space like a flowing, open and inviting pavilion". Flexity Zürich owes its strikingly large windows, bright, uncluttered interior, and rounded windshield, which give the streetcar a distinctive face, to this reference. In addition to accessibility, energy efficiency and sustainability Flexity Zürich offers a number of special features: USB ports for charging mobile devices, hooks on the seats for hanging bags and, as a further innovation, a highly visible LED passenger guidance system at the front and rear of the tram, whose colour changes from white to orange immediately before departure.

Comments of the nominators

The design of a new tramway is an extraordinarily demanding and complex task: First, the specifications of the manufacturer and the client must be met. Secondly, countless standards applicable to public transport must be met. Thirdly, the wishes of future users have to be taken into account. In light of this, the design solutions developed by Milani Design are convincing both in the broad lines and in many details. The Flexity Zurich presents itself as a contemporary, functional and at the same time identity-creating streetcar, which is optimally equipped for the planned period of use of 40 years.

Team Design:

milani design & consulting: Therese Naef, Britta Pukall, Manuel Ailinger, Stefan Pfister, Livia Knecht-Weder

Team Client:

VBZ – Verkehrs­be­triebe Zürich: Dr. Guido Schoch (bis 30.4.21), Dr. Marco Lüthi (ab 1.5.21), Silvia Behof­sits, Christoph Rüti­mann, Andreas Hotz

Team Supplier:

Alstom: Stephane Wettstein, Cora Hentrich – Henne, Martin Winkler, Thomas Fiedler, Andreas Boni­fazi

www.milani.ch
www.vbz.ch
www.alstom.com

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