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Winner of the European Architecture Awards 2020
Category Co-Living Residential

This green construction of 49 apartments
and a nursery school takes place in the
outskirts of Geneva.
It is the fruit of a competition organised by
the local city council to grant a land plot
to a housing cooperative. The project was
choosen by the jury both for its social and
architecural qualities.
The projet, jointly developed by the
architects and the members of the housing
cooperative, has two main goals: to provide
an exemplary social environment to develop
harmonious co-living and to lean toward
energy self sufficiency.

The project touches on the sometimes
controversial issue of densification of the
villa suburbs on the outskirts of Geneva. It
presents itself as six large houses, arranged
and oriented so as to create a transition
between the surrounding suburban context
and the small 1960s rental housing blocks
nearby.
The six buildings house a total of 49 flats,
including a cluster and 3 guest rooms.
Access is via wide landings, each with
2-4 flat entrances that run between and
define the “houses”. These generously
proportioned landings are used by residents
as an extension of their homes and as a
place to meet their neighbours.

The challenge was to give the buildings
a scale and character that would make
residents feel at home, while integrating
seamlessly into the neighbourhood. The
layout of the first three buildings on the road
side creates a reception area from which a
crèche, workshops and local shops can be
accessed. On the south side, the building
frames a protected and sunny area for the
crèche garden.

Credits: Johannes Marburg

The materiality of the façades combines
timber cladding and metal windows and
shutters. The envelope is clad with fir slats
that have been pre-treated to a silver-grey
colour, ensuring their structural stability over
time. This cladding envelops and unifies the
six smaller buildings, including the landings
and balconies, in a single articulated
volume.
The gable roofs echo those of the
houses in the neighbourhood to ensure that

the project is perceived as a grouping of six
separate buildings and not as one building
with a sawtooth roof.
This highly energy-efficient building is
virtually energy-independent and is the first
in Geneva that is able to produce 90% of
the electricity it consumes itself. It has been
awarded the Minergie P Eco® label.


Technical Sheet:

49 logements, parking, crèche, locaux d’activité
aménagement d’un espace public

Concours pour coopératives et architectes
pour la mise à disposition d’un terrain à bâtir.
Mandat complet d’architecte

Date
2011 – 2017

Award
Projet lauréat

Address
Route Jean-Jacques Rigaud, Chêne-Bougeries

Project owner
Codha, Coopérative de l’Habitat Associatif, Genève

Associates
Adriatik Mulaj, Miya Atsusaka, Xavier Ribera, Claire Dereuder
Mathieu Rouillon

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