With the opening of the Ceneri Base Tunnel in December 2020, the NRLA was completed. The flat railway through the Alps is now a reality, and has facilitated a quantum leap in Europe’s mobility. More goods can be transported by rail, and journey times between north and south have been cut. The Ceneri Base Tunnel also heralded a new era for Ticino. From 5 April 2021, journey times in the Bellinzona-Locarno-Lugano triangle have been massively reduced. Ticino has experienced a significant expansion of public transport, with positive impacts on the economy and society.
To celebrate this milestone in Switzerland’s history and encourage people in the three economic centres of Ticino to use passenger transport, SBB and its partners have implemented a number of publicity activities. As a physical event could not be guaranteed to take place due to the Corona pandemic, one of the activities pursued was the implementation of three site-specific signature installations.
Habegger had already been involved conceptually in the process of finding and designing a production for the three cities of Lugano, Locarno and Bellinzona. The core idea was to have three unique installations – eye-catchers – to visually enrich the stations at Bellinzona, Locarno and Lugano and to celebrate the new era of mobility in the region. The installations functioned as a trilogy and symbolised the faster connections in the triangle between the three cities. The people of Ticino were encouraged to travel through the region and to the respective railway stations.
In the SBB tender, Habegger finally also qualified for the planning and implementation of the installations. In order to ensure that at least 50% of the added value stayed in Ticino, we worked closely with a local carpentry firm. Three unique works of art were created that used augmented reality (AR) to show visitors the completion of the NRLA and the benefits of the Ceneri Base Tunnel for Ticino in a playful and entertaining way. Although the three installations were spatially separate, their architecture and presentation made them an attractive unit for passers-by, and recognisably conveyed the values of the principal, “Ceneri 2020”.
