The first thing that strikes you about The Circle – one of Switzerland’s most expensive and ambitious construction projects in years – is that it’s not actually a circle. In fact, it’s only just about a semicircle. But that’s splitting hairs somewhat, because The Circle is not yet – and won’t be for some years – actually anything at all.

What it will be, its designers and backers hope, will be a city on the edge of the city, one that acts as a magnet for multinational businesses, conference organisers and world class education to come to Zurich and one that oozes Swissness. Not Swissness in a gold, chocolatey, yodelling-across-the-Alps way, of course, but Swiss in a clean, orderly, precise and expensive way.

According to project leader Andrea Jörger, the project will require CHF1bn (€800m) to turn the vision of its star Japanese architects, Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop, into a reality. Zurich Airport, which owns the land earmarked for The Circle, is funding the majority of the work; a minority shareholder will be sought as building gets going, but Jörger isn’t yet ready to say how much they’ll need to stump up.

With three hotels, a healthcare and beauty centre, a 1,500-seat conference hall, shops, restaurants and an education centre planned, The Circle would serve 3,500-4,000 people a day – more when the conference centre is running to capacity. And all within a stone’s throw of the airport, and 12km from the city centre of Zurich, which is well connected by train.

The development, viewed from the airport, will look like a single, curved glass structure, and from the other side will show itself as a cluster of buildings, all within walking distance, that are connected by lanes and shopping strips – a layout that, despite the glass and steel materials employed, is inspired by the design of a traditional Swiss town.

Jörger insists the complex will help attract trade to Zurich and encourage people to see it as a more significant destination for a longer stay, rather than draw trade away from the town itself and save business travellers the trouble of leaving the airport, which currently handles 60,000-70,000 passengers a day. The extra hotel and conference space will allow the city to attract more MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) business.

“We’re not planning to make money by increasing the number of passengers through the airport,” maintains Jörger. “That’s not the point. It’s about increasing their length of stay and there’ll be demand from a new segment [of traveller] that doesn’t now exist.”

The proximity to old Zurich will be a significant draw, he says.

For the architects – who have recently completed a housing complex in South Korea, and have previously built individual homes, local government buildings, university departments and schools in Japan, China and Korea – this will be their first major project in Europe.

Work is due to begin in 2013, with the complex open for business in 2017. When finished, it will have 210,000m2 of usable floor space and will meet the requirements for American LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. Most of it is, however, yet to be allocated to prospective tenants, though Jörger says that a health-and-beauty partner has signed up and talks are at an advanced stage with a hotel operator.

Educational bodies – one of which, it’s hoped, will run an MBA course from the site – are also in negotiations. “But of course it’s quite a challenge to sign contracts with a timeframe five to six years away,” says Jörger.

Of the three hotels on site, together providing about 500 rooms, one will be a premium brand that will also run the conference centre, a second will be a budget hotel, and the third, it’s planned, will be serviced apartments for stays of a couple of months. The Circle is in an industrial zone, so no permanent living spaces are allowed.

The architects describe their design as recreating the structure of a medieval city with entirely new technology, construction methods and design for 21st-century purposes. “Though it will be an entirely new design, it will seem somehow familiar to visitors,” they say.

Why didn’t someone tell the architects it was going to be called The Circle, then? Jörger says the green hillside behind the structure completes the curve with Swiss precision. Jo Bowman