geneve 2020 visions urbaines

green glacier

Subject of this urban design is the industrial zone of la Praille, which forms the southern backdrop of Geneva. It is a huge heterogeneous enclave lacking identity.

The existing activities are densified by 2.500.000 m2 of mixed programme.

Due to Geneva's habitation problem, the focus is set on housing, which constitutes 60% of the overall programme.

The vision proposes a huge public park as the projects backbone and new  identity. The park forms an analogy in scale and programme to the lake Leman. It is structuring element and generator of new and existing quarters by unifying and valorising them. The park accommodates recreational and public mixed programmes, which act as attractors to the site.

Five new urban quarters develop in parallel to the park. They are characterized by individual typologies and have strong own identities. The individuality of each quarter confers the site a human scale. Flexible rules define the specificities of buildings and public spaces within the quarters. At the same time, they allow different evolutions and architectures to evolve into a non-homogenous field of

urbanity.

The rules are developed out of existing typologies, street patterns and historical traces.

A phasing strategy has been adopted, to react flexibly in time to changing economic needs.