The Urban-Architectural and Landscape Consultation “Prospective Visions for Greater Geneva. Inhabiting the City-Landscape of the 21st Century” was launched, on the initiative of the Braillard Foundation, on September 2019. International and interdisciplinary, its ambition was to gather elements of knowledge and to develop a 2050 design scenario for the Franco-Valdo-Geneva agglomeration. Its character was based on the three pillars of sustainable development: environment, society and economy. The Consultation was under the aegis of the United Nations for the Environment and under the high patronage of the Federal Office for Territorial Development.

Du sol et du travail: La transition, un nouveau projet biopolitique

On the initiative of the Braillard Architects Foundation, a consortium of partners (including the Swiss Confederation, the Canton of Geneva, the City of Geneva, the Pôle métropolitain du Genevois français, under the aegis of the United Nations for the Environment and under the high patronage of the Federal Office for Territorial Development) has launched the Urban-Architectural and Landscape Consultation entitled Prospective Visions for Greater Geneva. The research-by-design developed by Habitat Research Center proposed a vision for the metropolitan territory of Greater Geneva, through a reflection on the role of space, its forms, and its project, and to tackle the construction of the conditions of habitability of the contemporary city-territory.

Soil and labour are at the core of our vision as a first working hypothesis, introducing new lenses to look towards the future of the territory, to enrich the image of Greater Geneva, however often conflictual and problematic. The second hypothesis considers the social-ecological transition as a new biopolitical project.

This interdisciplinary research relies on design tools to produce a new understanding of the territory; it explores its spatial consequences investigating different scenarios based on soil and labour and it suggests a vision that generates eco-socio-spatial prototypes for the transition.

Several workshops and discussions have been organized by Braillard Architects Foundation. An exhibition with all projects is planned for the near future. 

Watch now the final presentation of the project held on September 24, 2020, in Geneva: