Rediscovering Geneva

Guided tour of the Vernets construction site and the Adret and L’Étang districts

For its traditional summer event, GVA2 brought its members into their city to discover the new districts that are shaping—or will shape—Geneva’s future. The visit offered a chance to understand how the city is transforming and the reasons behind these changes.

Led by architects Carmelo Stendardo (3BM3) and Robin Gay (Favre + Guth), we toured three sites that provide concrete responses to Geneva’s major challenges: accommodating a growing population within a limited territory, reducing dependence on the car, and improving quality of life despite significant constraints (railway lines, noise, and industrial legacies).

These new districts showed that it is possible to densify without sacrificing quality: shops, transit, services, green public spaces and appropriate urban furniture allow the “15-minute city” to breathe, where most daily needs can be met on foot or by bike.

We will continue this exploration at our 13 October dinner on “Geneva’s Future,” with Ariane Widmer, Sébastien Munafò and Francesco Perrella (to be confirmed). The aim is to combine the perspectives of urban planners, mobility experts and land-use planners to chart a common course: a closer, greener and more livable Geneva, able to keep pace with demographic change while preserving the quality of life that defines it.